Mangualde STEM Academy's mission is to promote the success, inclusion and quality of student learning, departing from local contexts, bringing together knowledge, skills, attitudes and values of STEM subjects in an integrated way, as well as the individuality of teachers and students, expanding their agency through the development of skills to solve local and global problems or aspirations, with a view of improving individual and social well-being.
Within the scope of the National Program for the Promotion of School Success, created in 2016, the Viseu Dão Lafões Intermunicipal Community created a project called “Promotion of Educational Success Viseu Dão Lafões” which aimed to support schools in promoting educational success through funding to municipalities that integrate the Intermunicipal Community. It was within this framework that the Municipality of Mangualde applied for a specific line of funding, "Supporting Successful Educational Contexts and Pedagogical Practices", which aimed to support work in a school context in order to support students who show difficulties, promoting the use of new digital tools, encouraging project-based learning, carrying out collaborative and interdisciplinary work, using new learning methodologies. This is how this Academy was born, a project started in April 2018, co-financed by European funds and intended for the Mangualde Schools' Cluster (AEM), with the EduFor Training Center as one of its main partners. The previous picture illustrates the signing of the protocol between the Municipality of Mangualde, EduFor, AEM and other project partners such as the Directorate-General for Education and MangualTécnica.