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Portugal

Portugal

Glossary

Last update: 28 November 2023

Bibliographical reference of the glossary:

Statistic Portugal, 2017. Metadata System-concepts. [online]

 

Accepted in higher education: An applicant that was accepted in higher education and is occupying one of the openings available for a specific course.

Accreditation of a higher education establishment: Act of verification of the fulfilment of the requirements required for the entry into operation of a higher education establishment. It is granted for a certain period of time, for one or more areas of training and for cycles leading to one or more academic degrees.

Accreditation of a study cycle: Act of verification of the fulfilment of the requirements for the creation and operation of a study cycle in a higher education institution.

Adult education and training course: basic or secondary education course, targeted at adults that have not concluded these levels of education, aiming to increase the levels of qualification and enhance the conditions of entry, re-entry and progression in the labour market.

 

Bachelor’s Degree: Course of higher education with normal duration between four and six years leading to the academic degree of graduate and proof of a scientific, technical and cultural training that allows the deepening of knowledge in a specific area of knowledge and an appropriate professional performance.

Bullying: term used to describe acts of physical or psychological violence, intentional and repeated, practiced by an individual (bully) or group of individuals.

 

Charter on Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education plays an essential role in the promotion of the core values of the Council of Europe: democracy, human rights and the rule of law, as well as in the prevention of human rights violations. 

Central Administration: the subsector of the central administration includes all administrative bodies of the State and other central bodies whose competence extends over the whole economic territory, excluding the administration of social security’s funds.

Centre for family support and parental counselling: social response intended for the study, prevention and socio-economic support of children and young people at social risk or danger and their families. The intervention is centred in the family, through an integrated approach of the community’s resources and is developed by multidisciplinary teams, aiming at the improvement of the target population’s life quality.

Certificate: Official document attesting to the knowledge and skills of individuals.

Certification: Process that formally recognizes the knowledge and skills of individuals, through the award of academic degrees, diplomas and certificates.

Children and Youth Health Appointments: General or family medicine appointment, in Health Centres, provided to people under 19 years-old (excluding Maternal Health, Family Planning and Public Health appointments).

Cine-Theatre: A building that is prepared for theatre plays and showing films.

City Council: the city council is the executive body to whom the management of municipal affairs is assigned to.

Collective employment agreement: a collective employment agreement of a conventional nature between one or more employers' associations and one or more trade union organisations.

Contraception: Use of means that avoid pregnancy through sexual intercourses.

Cyberbullying: a digital form of Bullying.

Cycle of studies: stage of education defined in the structure of the educational and training system with a determined normal duration and its own identity regarding objectives, purposes, curriculum organisation, type of teaching and programmes.

Curricular area: Group of subjects that constitute a curriculum.

Curriculum: group of contents and objectives that, properly organised, constitute the basis of the education and evaluation organisation of the student’s or trainee’s performance, as well as other guiding principles that may be approved with the same purpose.

 

Descendants: 1st degree descendants of the beneficiary or of the spouse and descendants beyond 1st degree (grandchildren, great-grandchildren), providing that they are orphans or that have rights through their parents.

Doctor: Holder of the academic degree of doctor.

Doctoral Certificate: a document that proves that the individual has a doctorate degree, and is accompanied by the issuing of a diploma supplement.

 

Early leaving from education and training: individual between 18 and 24 years-old, which has completed the 3rd cycle of basic education and is not attending any activity under the formal and non-formal education.

Early School leaving: leaving the education and training system before concluding the compulsory education and within the age group limits established in the law.

Education and training area: area of the National Classification of Education and Training Areas which groups the programmes according to the similarity between the respective contents.

Employment and professional training centre: local organisational unit that executes promotion policies for employment and training, meeting the needs of the labour market and the qualification of human resources in its area of influence.

ESI Funds - European Structural and Investment Funds: All five European Structural and Investment Funds, comprising the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund (ESF), the Cohesion Fund (CF), the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) and the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD).

Family reception centre: A social response developed in equipment aimed to receive, for a limited period of time, people in need, namely floating population, displaced families and other groups in a social emergency situation and which should preferably operate in conjunction with other integrative responses.

Family support and parental counselling centre: A social response aimed at the study, prevention and socio-educational support of children and young people in situations of social risk or danger and their families. The intervention is focused on the family, through an integrated approach to community resources and is developed by multidisciplinary teams, with a view to improving the quality of life of the target population.

Family allowance for children and young people: a monthly cash benefit, with a variable amount depending on the income level, the composition of the household and the age of the respective holder, in order to compensate the family expenses related to the livelihood and education of children and young people.

Formal learning: Education or training offered in educational or training institutions, where qualified professionals are responsible for organising, evaluation and certifying the learnings.  It is a hierarchic type of education or training, that is, after concluding a certain level there is a progression to higher levels.

 

Grade: Result of the evaluation process of the student’s and trainee’s learnings.

Graduate: Holder of the academic degree of graduate.

Grantee: individual to whom a scholarship or a research scholarship is granted.

 

Healthcare: provision of health goods and services to be used directly by individuals in different contexts: inpatient, outpatient and domiciliary care.

Health centre: A number of functional units that provide primary healthcare.

High competition/high performance Sporting activity that, inserted within the scope of sports-performance, reflects the showcase of talents and vocations of exceptional sporting merit, and the respective career is guided towards the success in sports at the international level.

Higher education applicant: Individual that intends to enrol in a specific course in a higher education establishment and meets the required conditions, such as: 1) possess a secondary education course or a legally equivalent academic qualification; 2) do a proof of competence to for the enrolment in higher education.

Household: for the purpose of assigning or determining the amount of the Social Security’s benefits for which the applicant must submit supporting documents regarding his/her economic resources, in order to verify if he/she meets the required conditions by the law. Generally, a household is considered to be a group of individuals, legally bound by legal and family relationships, who live in the same house as the applicant and in a family economy with him/her.

 

Labour status: Situation of the economic activity of an individual within the reference period, which can be considered active or inactive.

 

Lifelong Learning: intentional learning developed throughout life, in formal, non-formal or informal contexts, in the framework of a personal, civic, social and/or professional perspective.

Local administration: the subsector of the local administration includes public administration whose competence extends to only a part of the economic territory, apart from local administrations of social security’s funds.

 

Master's degree: University teaching course that proves in-depth level of knowledge in a restricted scientific area and scientific capacity for the practice of research, and that leads to the academic degree of master.

Master: Individual holding the academic degree of master.

Mental health: Health status related to an individual's ability to realise his or her own potential, to be able to cope with daily stress, to work productively and to contribute to the community in which he or she is inserted.

 

National Competition for Access to Higher Education: A competition targeted at the people who wish to apply to higher education, taking into account the number of openings available in each course of each public higher education institution.

National library: The library responsible for the acquisition and conservation of copies of all publications edited in the country, working as a “deposit” library, both by legislative instruction and individual agreements. It usually performs, among others, some of the following tasks: creating a national bibliography; keeping a large and representative collection of publications edited abroad up to date, of national authors or about the country where the library is located; playing the role of national centre of current and retrospective bibliographic information.

National Qualifications Catalogue (NQC): instrument of strategic management of the national qualifications at the non-higher educational level.

National Qualifications Catalogue (NQC): instrument of strategic management of the national qualifications at the non-higher educational level.

 

Primary healthcare:: Healthcare representing the first level of contact of individuals, families and the community with the National Health Service (NHS), the Regional Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Madeira or the Regional Health Service of the Autonomous Region of Azores.

Public administration: the sector of public administrations includes all institutional units whose main purpose consists of producing other non-commercial goods and services intended for individual or collective consumption and/or carry out operations for the redistribution of the national income and wealth.  The main resources of these units come from mandatory payments made by units that belong to other sectors and are received directly or indirectly.

Public library: a library targeted at the general audience, which provides the service to a Local or Regional community, and may include extension services, namely to hospitals, prisons, ethnic minorities or other social groups with access and integration difficulties.

 

Regional Administration: the subsector groups administrations that, as different institutional units, exercise administrative functions at a level below of the central administration and at a level above of the local administration, apart from the Social Security’s funds of the Regional Administration. Its scope of action extends to the economic territory covered by each one of the regions.

 

Scholarship: A non-refundable annual cash benefit with a fixed amount, fully supported by the State, which is intended to contribute to the expenses of attending a course or carrying out a mandatory internship.

School Groups: organizational unit endowed with their own management and administration bodies. It comprises of kindergartens and educational establishments with one or more levels of non-higher education.

School library: A library dependent on a non-higher educational establishment, targeted at students, teachers or other staff of the establishment, even though it can be open to the public.

School social support; A set of direct and indirect non-refundable financial measures and support granted by the State, aimed at guaranteeing the right and equal opportunities of access to education, school attendance and success, by overcoming economic, social and cultural inequalities.

School year: period of the school year that corresponds to a minimum of 180 effective days in basic and secondary education, and 36 to 40 weeks in higher education.

Social benefits: Cash or in-kind benefits granted by the Social Security schemes or by the employer, respectively, to their beneficiaries or workers, whether or not they are working and whether or not they are for their own use or that of their family members.

Social welfare: social security system, which is intended to prevent and repair situations of socio-economic deprivation and inequality, dependency, dysfunction, exclusion or social vulnerabilities, as well as the community integration and promotion of people. It is developed by the State, Local Authorities and Private Non-profit Institutions.

Sporting activity: physical activity that is structured, repetitive and generally requires physical fitness.

 

Training Centre: Structure comprised of spaces, equipment, trainers and other staff assigned to carrying out training initiatives.

Temporary Employment contract: employment contract entered between a company of temporary employment and a employee, who commits to provide a temporary activity for companies that resort to this type of contract, maintaining the legal, labour and wage bound to the company of temporary employment (metainformation - INE)

 

Unemployed: Individual between 15 and 74 years-old that, in the reference period, was in the following situations at the same time: 1) didn’t have a paying job or any other type of job; 2) was actively looking for a paying job or not over a specific period (the reference period or the previous three weeks); 3) was available to work in a paying job or not. The active search for a job implies the following efforts: 1) contacto com centros de emprego público ou agências privadas de colocações; 2) contacto com empregadores; 3) contactos pessoais ou com associações sindicais; 4) colocação, resposta ou análise de anúncios; 5) procura de terrenos, imóveis ou equipamentos; 6) realização de provas ou entrevistas para seleção; 7) solicitação de licenças ou recursos financeiros para a criação de empresa própria. A disponibilidade para aceitar um trabalho é fundamentada com: 1) o desejo de trabalhar; 2) a vontade de ter um trabalho remunerado ou uma atividade por conta própria, no caso de se poder obter os recursos necessários; 3) a possibilidade de começar a trabalhar num período específico (período de referência ou as duas semanas seguintes).

Unemployed person looking for a new job:  An unemployed individual that had worked before.

Unemployed person looking for his/her 1st job: An unemployed individual that has never worked before.

Unemployed person for a short period of time: Unemployed person that has been looking for a job for 12 or less months.

Unemployed person for a long period of time:: An unemployed person that has been looking for a job for 12 or more months.

 

Youth worker ("Técnico de Juventude"): professional or volunteer whose activity is defined by intervening in the conception, organization, development and evaluation of projects, programs and activities with and for young people, by means of non-formal education methodologies, facilitating and/or promoting their citizenship, participation, autonomy, inclusion and personal, social and cultural growth.