One of the legacies from Portuguese colonization in Brazil, whose original proposal remains until these days, is Fábrica da Estrela. The factory was created in 1808, by D. João VI’s decree, with the finality of producing enough gunpowder to defend a nation that was changing from a colony to capital of Portuguese monarchy, with the royal family arrival to Brazil. Located permanently in the city of Magé, at the state of Rio de Janeiro, the factory has more than two centuries of history, in which housed, in a recurrent way, educational institutions turned to workers and military children’s that worked at the factory. The present article deals with creation and installation of a singular educational project, the Industrial high school of Fábrica da Estrela (Gife), which operated from 1967 to 1973, inside Fábrica da Estrela. The goal of this study is to analyze the creation and installation of the high school in a military institution and its importance for the habitants of the locality and to professional training of their future workers. The sources of the research concentrate on testimonies of workers and formers students of the institution and the consultation at existing documents in Fábrica da Estrela and in the Historical Archive of the Army (AHEx). A dialogue was also established with the academic studies of Moreira (2005), that researched African work in Fábrica da Estrela, and Figueiredo (2008) and Ribeiro (2011, 2015), which deals with Magé’s industrialization. In addition to these works, the research took as bibliographic references Germano (2010), Lopes (1988) and Alves (2002). The goal of the Industrial High School was to provide a training space not only for the children of the area to continue their studies, but also to offer technical training that would enable the student to obtain the necessary instruction for factory work. Based on life histories collected through interviews with former workers and students, it was possible to remake part of the history of this institution and its educational policy, whose analyzes indicate that, within a short period of time, the Industrial High School managed to achieve its main objective, therefore, many of its former students continued working in the factory, some even, with leadership positions.