[21][22] The IFCE is the successor of the legacy that trained students who helped transform society in many aspects, highlighting some famous ones like physicist Cláudio Lenz Cesar, singer Falcão, journalist Flávio Paiva, writer Lira Neto, actor Jesuíta Barbosa, and politician and former senator Inácio Arruda.

Due to Brazil's entry into World War II, the site was used as shelter and preparation for the Rubber soldiers of the Special Service of Workers' Mobilization for the Amazon (SEMTA),[i] until 1945.

[31] In 1939 Waldyr Diogo de Siqueira was appointed director, and the following year, 1940, the high school was transferred to a building of the Ceará Transportation Network in the Centro neighborhood in Fortaleza.

[36] In the late 1960s the military government made an agreement with the World Bank that modernized the Federal Technical Schools (ETF),[k] with the one in Ceará receiving several pieces of machinery imported from countries such as Germany, Switzerland, France, the United States and Czechoslovakia.

[41] At that time, innovation was also part of the school's academic environment with its students and teachers involved in the elaboration of prototypes for patents, such as the needle that disables reuse to prevent AIDS transmission, in 1991.

[43] The interiorization began through the Program for Expansion and Improvement of Technical Education (PROTEC),[l] launched in Brasília in the year 1986 and made effective with the inauguration in 1995 of the Decentralized Teaching Units (UnED)[m] of Juazeiro do Norte and Cedro.

The course sought to enable literate people to improve the standard of living at home, through embroidery, painting, cooking, sewing, crochet, knitting, agricultural practices, notions of hygiene, nursing, etc.

The technical students that graduated from the course were integrated to the development process of the region, aiming at the socioeconomic growth of the community through the introduction of techniques and knowledge in the areas, as well as combining teaching and agricultural production.

In the beginning of Lula's government, there was a very high expectation in the possibility of improving professional education, notably revealed during CEFETs 2004 pedagogical meeting that made an extensive debate about the transformation to "Technological University".

7,234, of July 19, 2010: housing, food, transportation, glasses, technical visits and trips, academic, didactic-pedagogical, mother/father students, support for sports and culture, training and international pre-boarding.

[71][72] Currently, the project is called IFCE Apple Developer Academy, and offers short and long term trainings, opening opportunities for all interested parties, students of external and internal courses to the institution.

[74] Agreements between the IFCE and entities are part of the list of institutions and companies that offer internships for students, such as the one signed in 2015 with the Union of the Civil Construction Industry of Ceará (Sinduscom).

[89] In school, swimming is quite strong and has already generated outstanding athletes such as the student Mirna Lorena Araújo from Fortaleza, who received a high performance sports scholarship from the government of Ceará.

Engineering majors gain prominence among undergraduate degrees with 14 courses offered in the following areas: environmental, sanitary, civil, aquacultural, computer, control, mechatronics, industrial and production, telecommunications, and mechanical.

[115] The entire current network that fits the actions that this Policy contemplate would then be made available for research initiatives of its faculty, students, institutions and companies that want to partner for development and innovation in IFCE laboratories.

[116] Being a member of the National Education and Research Network (RNP)[ao] all IFCE campuses are interconnected by optical fiber with high speed internet access.

[141] Some IFCE extension actions deserve to be highlighted, such as the Training Centers for guide dog trainers and instructors and for people with visual impairment, at the Limoeiro do Norte campus (a pioneer in the Northeast);[142] or the free Rural Environmental Registration (CAR),[ar] made by Crato students for small rural landowners;[143] The business incubator system of the IFCE started its activities with the first unit in Fortaleza in 2005.

[150] Currently several campuses of the Institute have been implementing and improving the actions of junior enterprises: Tauá,[151] Maracanaú,[152] Crateús,[153] Iguatu,[154] Juazeiro do Norte,[155] among other initiatives still in progress.

Higher-level students also participate in science outreach olympiads and championships putting IFCE in the spotlight in this area as well, such as the Federal University of Ceará's noodles bridge tournament.

[180] Since 2018 the Juazeiro do Norte Campus has organized its students in participating in scientific events through the Institutional Olympic Committee (COI),[bg] which has become a model for all IFCE.

[186] The Mercosur Youth Parliament (PJM)[bh] is an educational project of the agreement that has representatives from IFCE running and having elected the student Francisco Hermeson for the 2018–2020 biennium.

[187][188] The institution also encourages participation in the Jovens Embaixadores Program (Young Ambassadors) of the United States Embassy, in which former students of the IFCE has already achieved good positions.

[194] The Coordination of scientific publications has worked to expand the IFCE's publishing spaces resulting in the emergence of new digital publications such as: Mopuã, from the areas of visual arts, dance, theater and music; the Journal of Mechatronics Engineering, which involves several engineering disciplines; and the Journal of Physical Education, Health and Sport, related to health and physical education,[195] Acta Kariri, from the Crato campus, focused on the areas of agriculture, animal husbandry and information systems.

In this sense, the IFCE emerged with a rector's office in Fortaleza and five pro-rectorates in the areas of Administration, Education, Research and Innovation, Outreach, and Institutional Development.

[bn][203] The National System for Evaluation of Higher Education (SINAES)[bo] creates several instruments that integrate and improve the performance of institutions, especially in the possibility of action of all those who make the IFCE work, through consultations and questionnaires, and meetings.

[8][204] Formatted by the management group, with the participation of the academic community, its principles (mission, vision and values) were revised in 2010, given the new institutionality of the IFCE, in order to adapt to the recent characteristics.

Once compiled, the mission, vision and values statements were submitted to the Superior Council of the IFCE, being ratified in 2011, in a resolution approving the following wordings of the principles:[205] Produce, disseminate, and apply scientific and technological knowledge in the quest to participate integrally in the citizen's education, making it more complete, aiming at their full social, political, cultural, and ethical insertion.

In its activities, the IFCE will value the ethical commitment with social responsibility, respect, transparency, excellence, and determination in its actions, in line with the basic precepts of citizenship and humanism, with freedom of expression, with feelings of solidarity, with the culture of innovation, with ideas fixed on environmental sustainability.

In 2017 the shadow of harassment came through the wave of religious anti-gender movement attacks on sex eds, mobilizing teachers in search of guarantees of rights in various instances, such as the Public Defender of the State of Ceará.

[229] The suspension was being extended for the entire period of the year 2020 and in the initial months norms and strategies for distance learning and training were being formulated for faculty and technicians to carry out their activities and attend to students.