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Being one of the most popularized measures of education policy taken by the latest Portuguese governments, the so-called enrichment activities for primary school pupils can also stimulate a reflection upon the effects of dualism in the workplace -- here viewed as the co-presence and cooperation, in the same institution, of workers with equivalent functions though with quite different contractual conditions. Based empirically on the experience of one of the authors in several primary schools in a suburban city near Lisbon, the article presents dualism and work precariousness as predictable results of the implementation of a political program that articulates several organizational processes -- from the Ministry of Education, to mayors and partner entities, to each primary school --, having as common denominator the intention of rendering public educational services more flexible via the use of easily dispensable workforce. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Interviews, questionnaires and focus groups were conducted to determine the training needs of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in relation to the Internet, e-commerce and electronic data interchange (EDI) in the UK, Poland, Slovak Republic, Germany and Portugal. The main findings indicated that there is a lack of skills and knowledge regarding use and implementation of these information and communication technologies (ICTs), and managers require training in both the business and technical issues associated with these ICTs. As a result of these studies, a Web-based intelligent training system (WITS) has been developed. The aim of the system is to provide awareness in how to implement the Internet, e-commerce and EDI into business processes. The WITS system aims to address the needs of SMEs by providing computer-assisted instruction on the main elements identified for e-commerce success. This paper describes the rationale for the structure of the WITS system, the means by which the content was classified into modules in the training system, the level of information provided, and the type of interface guidelines used to improve usability of the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]