Literacy in the cooperative sector evaluated through the reserve for cooperative education and training

Resumen

This study aims to evaluate the degree of legal-accounting literacy in cooperatives, having as an indicator the reserve for cooperative education and training, since this reserve is exclusive to the legal regime of cooperatives and which, due to its very specific purposes, presented itself as a mechanism that seeks to prevent or eliminate possible phenomena of illiteracy. This reserve — which implements the cooperative principle of education, training and information — addresses members, leaders and workers and aims to contribute to the development of the cooperative, by allowing the education of cooperators, an active membership, the professionalization of the employees and members of the management and supervisory bodies, as well as raising community awareness of the advantages of the cooperative model. The empirical study has shown that, in Portugal, there are cooperatives that do not have established the reserve for cooperative education and training or, despite having established the reserve, admit possibilities that the law does not allow, namely both the destination of the reserve as well as its sources, and even its distribution. In addition, cooperatives are not adequately accounting for this reserve. There is, therefore, a significant degree of legal and accounting illiteracy regarding the reserve for cooperative education and training, which difficult or limits the achievement of its purposes.