The study "CTeSP – Assessment of a Decade of Higher Professional Technical Courses," conducted by the Center for Investigation of Higher Education Policies, was presented in Lisbon at the request of the Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation. Created in 2014 as short-cycle higher education programs lasting two years, CTeSP represented approximately 13% of new higher education enrollments in 2024/25, progressively approaching the European average. However, the vacancy fill rate remains only slightly above half of the available capacity.
The curricular internship is simultaneously the most valued component and the one with the most reported shortcomings. About half of graduates received an offer to continue at the organization where they interned, demonstrating the importance of the internship in the transition to the labor market. Nevertheless, problems arise such as poor coordination between supervisors, underqualified tasks, and misalignment between internship content and the training profile.
The study reveals that there is labor market integration, but frequently in less stabilized segments. Graduates tend to be younger, concentrate in smaller companies, and show a higher proportion of fixed-term contracts. In 2023, the average monthly remuneration was lower than that of bachelor's degree holders, although the salary premium compared to workers with only secondary education is estimated between 13.3% and 22.4%. Unemployed graduates point to the lack of opportunities in their field and region as the main difficulty.
More than half of graduates transitioned to bachelor's degrees, which suggests that many pathways were already planned before enrollment. The dropout rate at the end of the first year increased from 19% to 29% between 2015/16 and 2022/23, associated with socioeconomic factors and the condition of being a displaced student. The working group's recommendations point toward more professionalizing training and greater territorial connection, without neglecting the democratization of access to higher education.
