This study proposes to analyze the conceptions of professional education for public health agents (agentes de saúde pública - ASP) that are present in the formulation of the Training Programme for Local Agents of Surveillance in Health (Proformar) and assess how well these conceptions are understood by the programme's tutors in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro. This is an empirical research, using a qualitative approach, with analysis of documentary sources and semi-structured interviews with the Proformar tutors working in Rio de Janeiro. The research results show that Proformar's objective of training the ASP to become environmental surveyors with a critical vision is understood by the tutors in so far as they understand that the construction of the identity of the Brazilian Health System's secondary level worker happens in his/her work process through the understanding of the territory-population as a space for the social production of health. The tutors assimilate the conceptions of the ASP's professional education that point to a rupture with the concept of competence based on the market/production logic and move on to an appreciation of the workers' experiences and of their development as political subjects.
professional education; Brazilian Health System; work and environment; surveillance in health