The present study has as main objective the study of the formative profile of the secondary education students in the transition to the upper education, particularly for the potential students of the Instituto Politécnico da Guarda (from now on designated as IPG), a higher education institution in Portugal. Also, this study proposes to seek opportunities and perspectives of the resultant changes in the labour demand dynamics. This study binds itself to the straight relation that the institutions of Upper Education, today more than never, should develop between their formative offer and the employers' demands. In this way, this study, as much as possible, proposes contributions for a better adaptation between these two levels. We begin to refer ourselves to the districts of Guarda, Castelo Branco and Viseu, covering the interior centre of Portugal. The sample of interviewed and inquired, by means of a questionnaire, covers this vast zone. As work hypotheses we formulated the following: - "Will be that the upper formation offered by IPG is adequate to the expectations of the eventual future students?"; - "Will be that the upper formation offered by IPG is adequate to the technical needs of the employers?"; - "What mutual interactions can be developed between the IPG colleges to improve the quality and the diversity of the formative offer?"; - "What formative offer can best reach the needs in innovation dynamics?". As specific objectives of this study we have, among others: - to know the tendencies of the formative choices of the students that are to finalize secondary education; - to know the dynamics and tendencies of employers in the region; - to identify the potentialities of this region, nearby Spain; - to identify the priority areas of formation for the IPG. Through this investigation we came across the Portuguese national policies for this sector in the last forty years, integrating them with economical and sociological data as a means to understand the actual situation in Portugal, whose characterization is also done, and comparing the Portuguese situation to their European counterparts. Then, we follow to the challenges from the cognitive society, to finally reach the Bologna Declaration and the Magna Charta Universitatum as a first step to a European higher education standard. Economic development, the emergence of new models of work and management and the Output Anthropocentric System, are also appreciated of the point of view of the challenges for new organizational models and upper formation. The statistical part of this study supports itself with a sample of 832 students, from 13 secondary schools in these districts. Already, regarding a global study, we performed interviews with the most important actors in this region: professional associations, politicians, the national youth institute, the national employment institute and the national social security institute. The most remarkable conclusions suggest that the Upper Education has challenges that cannot take all alone: more fruitful relationships with industry and society, creating partnerships that last. Topics like continuous education, women promotion and technologic incentives must be pursued in the near future. Despite the general situation found, our point of view about higher education in the interior part of Portugal is very optimistic. This study encloses a reasonable hand-full of recommendations and conclusions that should been taken in consideration in future policies.