Reflection on CUs 1 to 4 -
From the intervention context of training to the planning of training activities

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      25 years as a trainer is so much, so much impact on me. I know today that I really like what I do!

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     After graduating in Human Resources Management, I decided to attend, at the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal, the Initial Pedagogical Training of Trainers course, obtaining a Certificate of Professional Aptitude (CAP), today Certificate of Professional Skills (CPP).
      

      A few months later, I was called by the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal asking if I wanted to attend the Training Coordination Course. I remember asking, "And how much do you pay to attend the course?" And on the other end of the line I heard, "80 contos." I was devastated and replied, "I'm sorry, I'd like it a lot, but it's a lot of money for me, because I'm out of work."
 

      I'll never forget what my future co-worker (little did I know) said to me: "See what you can do, you'll enjoy it, learn a lot, meet people who are worth it, have a fantastic trainer and give the money for being very well spent." I immediately thought, I'm going to talk to my mother, because with 1000 snails I really want to take this course, the training bug already lives in me.

 

My time at the Confederation of Farmers of Portugal

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        Little did I know that the training course I was going to attend and the people I was going to meet would change the course of my life in such a way, that after 24 years I am still a trainer.

 

 

       I worked for 14 years at the Recognition, Validation and Certification of Skills (RVCC), where I met people who, after a day of work, with families and without receiving a escudo, or cent (for those who may think that people went for the money), Paço dos Negros, Almeirim, Alpiarça, Salvaterra de Magos, Benavente, Coruche, Azinhaga, Golegã, Carregueira, Chamusca, Ulme, Torres Novas, Porto Alto, Cadaval, Murteira, Santarém, according to their area of residence, according to a defined schedule, attend RVCC.

       People imbued with a desire to improve their lives and learn.

 

          There are so many stories that I bring with me. If I may, I will share one.

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        The Confederation of Farmers of Portugal has established partnerships with several local intervention agents, knowledgeable about the reality and its citizens, being imperative in dissemination, provision of space for training, articulation of opening hours to better serve people,...                          

      One of the partnerships formalized was with the Paulo Freire Center in Marinhais, with my dear Ana Peixoto, Coordinator of the Center at the time.

         One day he said to me, "I need sheets of paper so much!" The kind that no one wants, that go to waste, because they are crumpled, torn, written from one side to the other, or who knows what else." "But for what? I asked." "To take to Africa where I'm going on a mission.". "The teachers take the opportunity to perforate them, without piercing them, making them high so that blind children can feel and read."

        If I tell you that I was floorless and my eyes were teary, so it was.

       In the RVCC process, one of the areas of intervention, analysis, training is citizenship, language, culture, language, society,... I dare to say life in all its dimensions, panoplys, comprehensiveness, diversities, vastness. We talk to the trainees and if they knew, if they could have seen the notebooks, sheets, magazines, newspapers, books, leaflets, pamphlets,... They knew that this was an example of democracy in what is most fundamental in a society: sharing, communication.      

 

     In my opinion, this is the case, when we are faced with the pillars of communication, according to the philosopher Socrates: truth, goodness and utility. The democracy of giving the power to the people to choose to act, giving utility to leaves, which in fact are garbage, useless for some, but for others they are instruments of work, which artisans of education will mold and transform into letters, words, images,... Food for hands, mind, heart, spirit, village, city, community, family,...; food that turned children into adults, some of whom are now also teachers.

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       And so the seeds of learning are sown by example.

     The Confederation of Farmers of Portugal, the Institute of Employment and Vocational Training, the Business Group of the Santarém Region and other institutions where I have worked and as a trainer are impactful for me, because in them I meet people who see training as an enhancer of people who know where they are, they may, or may not know where they want to go, they may or may not know how to get there, but from the moment they come into contact with the training we make a journey together in which the process is as important as the results that are achieved.

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    It is in the process that we consider the person, enhance their specificities, find opportunities for improvement and development that lead to results that can be: construction, or deconstruction, definition, or redefinition, answer, or question, certainty, or doubt, tranquility, or restlessness,...

 

       I honestly tell you, it is impossible for me to know the impact that training has on each one, if it has any on some people, but I know that learning and the tele or face-to-face relationship allows us to abandon, discover, build, invent and take advantage of paths that build bridges between us and break down walls.

 

        I end by saying, to form for me is to build Bridges Between Us so well written and described by Pedro Abrunhosa in the song: "Bridges Between Us."

 

I'll leave you with the letter and draw your own conclusions.