Escola Virtual de Governo

What Escola Virtual de Governo is

Escola Virtual de Governo, which signs itself EV.G or Escola Virtual.Gov, is the online learning platform that sits under the Portal do Governo Brasileiro, the Brazilian government portal. It is a catalog of courses and longer programs on public administration and public policy, written by a long list of government bodies and partner institutions, and aimed first at the people who work in the public sector: civil servants, municipal managers, IT managers and public leaders. Anyone browsing the catalog can see the full offer, and each course has its own enrollment button. For this directory it belongs with the government course portals and with university-level open courses, because a good part of the content comes from universities and international organizations. The interface is available in Portuguese, English and Spanish.

The course catalog

The course catalog lists 911 results over 76 pages, and the whole catalog can be downloaded as a CSV file. It can be filtered five ways:

• Workload, from up to 10 hours to over 100 hours.
• Theme, with more than forty topics such as data analysis and data science, retirement and pensions, law and legislation, human rights, diversity and inclusion, ethics and integrity, people management, public governance, digital government, innovation, artificial intelligence, leadership, logistics and public procurement, budget and finance, and a run of policy areas from health and education to security, climate, transport and regulation.
• Competency, split between general ones (communication, data-based problem solving, digital mindset, teamwork, systemic vision, focus on results for citizens) and leadership ones (strategic communication, crisis management, managing for results, innovation and change, vision of the future).
• Language: Portuguese, English or Spanish.
• Content provider.

Each course card shows the provider, the workload in hours, a star rating with the number of reviews, and a short description.

Who writes the courses

The provider filter shows how wide the platform's network is. Brazilian federal bodies make up most of it: Enap (the national school of public administration), the ministries of education, finance, health, justice and public security, human rights and citizenship, and management and innovation in public services, the Central Bank, the Federal Court of Accounts (Tribunal de Contas da União), the Comptroller General (Controladoria Geral da União), the Chamber of Deputies, Anvisa, Embrapa and the federal data processing service. Next to them are international and academic providers, including the University of Oxford, Columbia University, Delft University of Technology, Marginal Revolution University, J-PAL LAC, the Inter-American Development Bank, UNDP, UNFPA, the International Organization for Migration and the United Nations System Staff College, along with Microsoft, Apolitical, Endeavor, Instituto Unibanco and ITS Rio.

Examples from the catalog

The newest courses on the first page give a feel for the range and the depth:

• Three courses from CARF, the administrative tax appeals council, on its purpose and structure (25 hours), its judging activity and case law system (30 hours) and an introduction to the tax administrative process (25 hours, rated 5.0 from 3 reviews).
• Ativos Virtuais em Investigações Criminais, 30 hours from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, on virtual assets, blockchain, the legal framework and how investigators identify, seize and manage crypto assets.
• Licitações e contratos no contexto da LGPD, 20 hours from the Secretaria de Governo Digital, on applying the LGPD and the handling of personal data to public tenders and contracts.
• A 20-hour privacy and information security course for ICT managers, rated 4.9 from 7 reviews.
• Política de Trabalho e Reintegração Social nas Políticas Penais, 40 hours, on work in the prison system and social reintegration, rated 4.7 from 23 reviews.
• Memória, Escravidão e Reparação Histórica, 30 hours from the Ministry of Human Rights and Citizenship, on slavery and historical reparation, rated 4.9 from 76 reviews.
• IA e Transformação Digital, 15 hours from the University of Oxford, on ethical and trustworthy AI in government, rated 4.6 from 36 reviews.
• Refletir para não Repetir, 20 hours from UNFPA, for people who run reflective groups for men who have committed gender violence, rated 4.9 from 100 reviews.
• COSIP e Cidades Resilientes, a 3-hour course from the national front of mayors on the public lighting levy, rated 5.0 from 35 reviews.

Programs

The site explains that "As Trilhas de Aprendizagem passaram a ser denominadas Programas" (learning paths are now called programs). A program gathers courses, articles, videos, podcasts and other formats around one theme or development goal. Certification criteria are set out on each program's page; once the requirements are met, a program certificate is issued for the program's total workload, and courses completed with a passing result also generate their own certificates.

The programs page can be filtered by workload, theme and type: thematic, competency-based, and Google Coursera. The Google Coursera group carries Google's data analytics, IT support, project management, UX design and digital marketing and e-commerce programs, all marked "Inscrições encerradas" (enrollment closed), plus a short Google AI fundamentals program. The rest are built for public managers. A Gestão Municipal series covers the fundamentals of municipal management (225 hours), public procurement and contracts (242 hours), governance, planning and budget (224 hours), and citizen service and digital transformation (205 hours). A public contracting series runs from planning a purchase (100 hours) through supplier selection (136 hours) to contract management (220 hours). AI is a large strand, from AI in day-to-day public work (173 hours) and strategic AI for public leaders (133 hours) to a 260-hour data and AI executive program. The longest programs pass 300 hours, among them Orçamento e Finanças (300 hours), Gestão pública em transformação (368 hours), Soldado Cidadão (374 hours) and Gestão Humanizada (377 hours). Others cover anti-racist competencies for public agents, BIM procurement, industrialized construction, climate adaptation plans, women's protection and programs for people restarting their working lives.

Help and tools

A beta chat assistant called Bel helps users find a course, learn about Aprendizágil, answer certificate questions and sort out login problems. The site labels it "Solução experimental de IA. As informações podem conter imprecisões." (an experimental AI solution whose answers may contain inaccuracies). The footer links to a help section, a document validation page, figures on the platform (EV.G em Números), the list of participating institutions, and a membership (adesão) route for partner institutions. A notice warns that during the electoral blackout period some videos, podcasts and links in courses may be temporarily unavailable to comply with election law.

Who it suits

Escola Virtual de Governo suits Brazilian public servants at any level who want short, rated courses on the exact rules and systems they work with, and managers who want a long structured program with a certificate for its full workload. Municipal staff get a whole series of their own, and IT managers have privacy, cloud and data courses. Students and citizens interested in public policy will find university and international content in the same place. The catalog and programs pages show no prices. The offer is mainly in Portuguese and built around Brazilian law and administration, which is its strength for its audience and its limit for anyone else.