CFPIMM has received a favourable opinion from UNESCO Secretariat concerning on an application submitted on March 2005 to the system of Associated Schools from this international organization, therefore becoming the first Vocational Training Centre from Portugal to join into this project. This project is based on the main guidelines of action of this organization, in particular “contributing to peace and security, by promoting collaboration among nations through education, science and culture in order to increase universal respect for justice, law, human rights and fundamental freedoms of people without distinction as to race, sex, language or religion”.

In this context, UNESCO proposes a number of topics to be developed by the associated schools:

• Global problems and the United Nations system role;
• Human rights, Democracy and Tolerance;
• Intercultural learning;
• Environmental issues.

The project developed by CFPIMM is based on the second topic “Human Rights, Democracy and Tolerance”, promoting the fourth pillar of education, which has been set for this century – Learning to live together – implying two different levels of action: a reflection on the human rights and an action on human rights. The actions to be taken will have a higher impact in the socio-cultural fields and punctually worked in activities promoted by the Resources Centre, targeted not only CFPIMM public, but also the community in general.

The Eco-Schools project is a Europe-wide initiative under the responsability of the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE). This project intends to be a methodological contribute for a participatory and enlightened environmental education in the schools where educating is to create conscientious and active citizens to the environment. “Think global, act global”, the Agenda 21 premise becomes a present formula in all education proposals for the Environment and Development.

The project is focused on implementing the Agenda 21 at the local level and aims the application of environmental education concepts to the everyday life of educational institutions, CFPIMM joined this project, proposing to address the following topics: water, energy, waste and outdoors spaces. The project implementation provides the following steps:

• Constitution of Eco-Schools Council: includes representatives of the trainees, trainers, non-teaching staff, parents, as well as representatives from the municipality;
• Environmental audit: Caracterising of the existing situation to identify what needs to be corrected/ improved;
• Action Plan: drafted on the basis of the previous step;
• Monitoring and evaluation: the Eco-Schools Council meets regularly to follow-up actions set out in the Action Plan;
• Curricular work: the Eco-Schools project has as basic principle that environmental issues which are studied should influence CFPIMM’s functioning;
• Information and involvement of the School and local community: through events organised in order to attracts community’s attention on the developed work, highlighting the development of school’s environmental performance;
• Eco-Code: is a statement of purpose translated into concrete actions that should be followed by all members from CFPIMM.

The Library Network of Paredes results from a cooperation work between: the Paredes Municipal Council; the Public Library of Paredes; the School Group of Cristelo, Baltar, Lordelo, Paredes, Sobreira and Vilela; the A Lord Foundation, the Parish Council of Recarei; the Paredes Secondary School and the Training Centers CFAE Paços de Ferreira, Paredes, Penafiel and CFPIMM. The main aim of this joint venture is to bring people to the libraries, by facilitating a personal and virtual access to the information through the following portal http://redebibliotecas.cm-paredes.pt/ where the catalogue of each partner libraries is available for consultation.