The article presents results of analyses of documents from institutions of professional and technological education in relation to the use of professional knowledge in its interaction with the social system. Two types of documents were analysed: a. the Institutional Development Plans (from 2009 to 2013) of five Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology from Minas Gerais; b. legal documents, some of which from the Ministry of Education. The aim was to know how these documents defined the use of professional knowledge for specific demands of the social system. Priority was given to solid demands of the local, regional and national socioeconomic development; social concerns of social groups and institutions; regional peculiarities; productive, social and cultural local arrangements and these that came from need for environmental protection.
knowledge; vocational education; teaching institutions; social development