On Monday, the 13th, the list of those approved in the first call for the Unicamp 2017 Entrance Exam was published. The list includes some students who graduated from Colégio Técnico de Campinas (Cotuca). Among the options for choosing a course, the most varied. From students who decided to pursue an undergraduate course in the same area as their technical training, to students who decided to change to a new area.
In the first case, there is Fernando Oliveira Rodrigues, 18 years old, who graduated as a mechatronics technician, and studied control and automation engineering at Unicamp. In addition to Unicamp, Fernando passed the engineering course at Unesp and USP, but chose to attend Unicamp.
Fernando explains that the technical course was important during the entrance exam period, “The technical course puts us in front of new situations and challenges us to overcome them. And a lot of the knowledge I acquired in coaching I was able to apply outside of school. In the entrance exams, for example, the technician’s knowledge of electricity and hydraulics helped me solve Physics questions.” For him, the gains go beyond the entrance exam: “I think the structure of Cotuca should also make it easier for me to adapt to the university environment”.
As for Vinicius Mendes Carmona, 18 years old, who also graduated in mechatronics and will now study Agricultural Engineering, the technical course he took is not directly linked to the undergraduate course, but he believes that “due to the area of mechanics being present in agricultural engineering , I believe that the foundation I had in coaching can help me a lot in my graduation.”
Even in the case of students who took courses in an area completely different from that studied at Cotuca, students highlight the gain from technical education. This is the case of André Piau Vieira, who studied IT as a computer technician and now studied Physical Education.
André explains that to pass the entrance exam, “reading, interpreting and understanding the wording of the questions were much easier, since during the technical exam I learned to master certain knowledge about logic and interpretation of computational languages and texts”. He also adds that he believes that even if he pursues a career in another area, he will be able to take all the knowledge acquired at Cotuca, such as “the logic and the correct ways to work in groups, respect the collective, etc.”
