The changing and highly competitive job market is putting pressure on both the private and public sectors to maintain and prepare an educated and well-trained human resource. In this context, a well-integrated educational and training strategy must be formulated and implemented, jointly, by the public and private sectors. This study presents the effort of Portugal in this direction. It emphasises a process orientation to achieve the goal of upgrading the educational skills of Portuguese employees, part of whom are entrepreneurs. For the purpose of this study cluster analysis, regression analysis and the important performance analysis were used. Based on the findings, the implications of the cooperation between the public and private sectors are discussed and a conceptual framework to aid policymakers, decision makers, and future researchers is offered. The benchmarking implications of this process are underscored.