The text presents partial conclusions from studies looking at the senses and meanings produced, in the context of Brazilian education, for the links that have been established between the education of young people and adults (EJA) and the professional qualification, in programmes implemented by the federal government. In this article, building on research that identified various federal actions, projects and programmes over the last six decades, we chose to provide an analysis of concepts and principles expressed in two programmes implemented, in differentiated contexts: the first consolidated in the Military Ditatorship, the Intensive Pool Preparation Programme (PIPMO); the second, in the current federal government, the National Programme for Access to Technical Education and Employment (PRONATEC). Two logical trends are identified in the past and present relationship of the programmes analysed: the first is the re-privatisation of the public through the financing of vocational qualification measures on private initiative, and the second restores the denial of the provision of full education, with the retention of qualification courses isolated from schooling for the majority of young people and adults, which leads us to conclude that education as a right and vocational qualification is distant from the point of view of the full human training of workers.