Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde (EPATV)

Who we are?

EPATV is a vocational school- Escola Profissional Amar Terra Verde (EPATV) and a higher education institution- o Instituto Superior de Saúde do Alto Ave (ISAVE), where social and educational activities take part both in formal, non-formal and in informal contexts. The vocational school was created in 1993 from a tripartite agreement between 3 town halls: Amares, Terras do Bouro e Vila Verde. Nowadays, it is a private institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Education.  The vocational school has around 800 students and 90 teachers and it is located in Vila Verde, a rural area in the north of Portugal, strongly low qualified and whose population struggles with social and economic problems, mainly due to unemployment, low formal qualifications, and life conditions

What we do?

We also develop intergenerational activities, thinking about the students and their families, and literacy courses.

The vocational school – EPATV – is working on mobility projects since 1993 in partnership not only with European countries, but also with some other Portuguese speaking countries: Cape Verde, St. Tome & Principe, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and Angola. We also work with students from Guinea Equatorial, Senegal, and Libya. More recently, the school has hosted students from Brazil, Ukraine, and Romania and from African countries.

To promote social inclusion, active citizenship, employment or self-employment, to prevent early school dropout, gender equality are key messages that we pass in our daily routines.

We have had several projects under these topics, from Leonardo da Vinci, to Comenius and now Erasmus +. We are in Eco-School for some years now and we are motivated towards an environment friendly attitude.

The higher education school offers level 5 and level 6 courses (according to the EQF) with around 600 students. It’s a recent institution, specialized in health and well-being technologies and it aims the community development, besides the research in the areas above mentioned. It also promotes entrepreneurship skills in its students by involving them in local activities within the community and improving the life conditions of the population in general. The level 6 graduations are mainly in Nursing, Physiotherapy and Dental Prosthesis.

Both institutions offer complementary activities

and transnational projects with European and non-European countries.

Our best practices

EPATV Magazine