Public policies at work, education and technology have been object of active confrontation between antagonistic social forces. This is the theme of this article that aims to initiate a debate about some public policies on professional and technical education field. In this sense, we recover the discussion on work-education relationship — which at the beginning of the 1980's justified the creation of the work team called "Work and Education", at the National Association of Post Graduation and Research (Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Educação - Anped) — to gather elements which enable the assessment of advances and retrocession of current public policies related to professional and technical education. The article is base don the follow-up and participation in the debate on work-education of the Guidance Law and Basis of National Education (Lei de Diretrizes e Bases da Educação Nacional - LDB) and on researches about this theme.
work-education; social activity and education; public policies