Ler em Português | Leer en español

The spotlight is on Alexandre Louzada, coordinator of IT training, FAETEC, Brazil.

Fundação de Apoio à Escola Técnica (FAETEC) is a public vocational school network in the state of Rio de Janeiro overseen by Brazil’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

With a main campus in the capital, it has 60 schools serving the 17 million people in the 22 cities of state. With annual enrollment of some 50,000 students, FAETEC’s objective is to contribute to economic and social development by raising employability rates in technical professions.

To achieve its objective, the organization promotes the continual professional learning of teachers, with emphasis on the use of technology in classrooms.

Among the 120+ technical programs offered are graduate-level courses in Information Technology, Information Systems, and Systems Analysis.

Alexandre Louzada, coordinator of computer technology training since 1998, is responsible for harnessing the most appropriate teaching resources for IT staff. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Informatics from Iguaçú University and a master’s degree in Informatics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. He specializes in cybersecurity, networking and pedagogy related to computer science.

In 2020, Louzada led an evaluation team that studied Oracle Academy resources and determined that becoming an Institutional member would give teachers the skills and resources with which to bolster FAETEC’s classes in programming and database.

Oracle Academy: Why did you pick Oracle Academy?

Alexandre Louzada: As a state institution, we look for partnerships with companies that provide technical and technological solutions. During the pandemic, restricted to our homes and difficult to deliver computing classes, we investigated leading companies that bring innovation to our teaching and ultimately improve job prospects for programming and database graduate students.

Oracle Academy emerged as the partner we needed.

Oracle Academy: How did you proceed?

Alexandre Louzada: Having made the choice of Oracle Academy, we had to get our teachers trained in the resources. We began during the pandemic with Java in 2020. A first wave of 26 instructors took online training in Java Foundations and Java Fundamentals, delivered online by Oracle Academy’s team in Brazil.

A second round was held for a group of 10 teachers who had not been able to join the initial training. For these we did a ‘train the trainer’ exercise ourselves, based on what we had learned. These sessions were super important to us and engendered a surge of interest across all faculties dealing in programming and databases at basic or graduate level.

Oracle Academy: And how many students attend the Information Technology graduate courses?

Alexandre Louzada: There are over 1,000 students in our five-semester graduate courses. My own cohort currently numbers 188; other teachers have less, depending on what courses they impart. I teach two main classes: Introduction to Databases, and Database Programming.

For these I respectively use Oracle Academy curriculum: Database Foundations, Database Design and Programming with SQL, Java Foundations, Java Fundamentals and Java Programming. In addition, I give classes in Python.

Oracle Academy: How have these resources been received?

Alexandre Louzada: With great enthusiasm! It was amazing to see the boost in motivation. The Oracle Academy courses are strides ahead of our previous curriculum. The content of the slides are simple and well-structured. I have students who love learning to design and model projects with Oracle SQL Developer Data Modeler and creating low-code apps with Oracle APEX.

APEX has been amazing because students enjoy the hands-on labs, the problem solving and the real-life scenarios that these tools open up.

And from the teacher perspective, as mentioned, more and more are interested in adopting the resources for their classrooms. In fact, part of my remit is to augment the potential of Oracle Academy within FAETEC.

I would say that teaching itself, crucial to FAETEC’s philosophy, has improved thanks to the availability of quality materials, practical and theoretical exercises and the continual enhancement of the Oracle Academy platform.

Teaching is a very noble purpose and forming someone is a privilege. It is a continuous process in which we update our knowledge both from the teaching materials and from student feedback. Oracle Academy has broadened our horizons.

Oracle Academy: You mentioned usage of Oracle APEX; can you give an example?

Alexandre Louzada: Yes, a resounding success! After my class began using APEX, the School Records Division enquired if it might be used to revamp the not so efficient system in place for recording student enrollment, transfers, exam results and many other aspects related to school records throughout the state of Rio de Janeiro.

FAETEC, as a public entity, is subject to a public tender for the acquisition of software and other resources. It is a time-consuming and often expensive procedure and therefore the possibility of in-house development was highly attractive.

We faced this challenge! Two of my students volunteered to create a prototype using the APEX cloud-based development platform and it was a success, the School Records Division tested and approved the solution developed by the students; however, it was only a prototype as a feasibility study and test.

Oracle Academy: Brilliant. And are you considering Oracle Cloud?

Alexandre Louzada: We definitely intend to deploy the Oracle Academy Cloud Program. It will help enormously because our current infrastructure is deficient in capacity, memory, processing power and other performance drivers. Deploying Oracle Cloud will streamline our teaching of Java and SQL programming, database design and the many other Oracle Academy resources. Students can log on from wherever they happen to be, and we’ll be able to link all faculties and entities throughout the state of Rio de Janeiro. We are pleased to learn that Oracle Academy is to deliver a full Portuguese version of the cloud resources.

Oracle Academy: Do you intend to steer your graduates towards Oracle Professional Associate certifications?

Alexandre Louzada: Possibly in the future, because encouraging certification is part of FAETEC’s mission. At the moment, our graduates receive from Oracle Academy a Final Exam Completion Award certificate, which looks good on their resumés. In general, we believe that with the programming and database skills acquired, there are open doors for our graduates in almost every industry requiring programmers, problem-solving skills, infrastructure support functions, apps development and much more.

Oracle Academy: That’s good to hear. And what are your interests outside of the classroom?

Alexandre Louzada: To be honest, they are similar to what I attempt to further within FAETEC, that’s to say professional development of teachers leading to better opportunities for graduates. My passion is the use of technology in education, a passion shared by my wife.

We are very involved in the whole Society 5.0 concept supporting new ways of living in this fast-moving technology age. We do a lot of volunteer work helping communities to understand the impact of technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence and the internet of things.

In this context, I am preparing a thesis for my doctorate. It focuses precisely on the optimum way to train teachers to deliver the tools needed for Society 5.0. That means, how best to get educators fully versed on these technologies in order to help students move into what is becoming a new social organization model, and thereby contribute to building a vital and hope-filled future.

Thank you, Alexandre Louzada, for your passion for Oracle Academy and for preparing your students to make a positive impact.