Mission possible! Understanding and overcoming barriers to technical education in Latin America and the Caribbean

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

Across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), over one-third of employers report that a lack of skills in their employees is the largest obstacle to increasing productivity (World Bank, 2012). At the same time, one out of five youth ages 15-24 in the region are neither working nor in school (World Bank, 2016). Technical education is key to addressing the skills gap and youth unemployment in LAC, but there is a need for sustainable educational initiatives that help students and societies to overcome obstacles to accessing and completing technical education programs.

Technical training institutions have historically been perceived as less-prestigious, with dry coursework that is too often disconnected from workforce realities (USAID, 2015). Barriers such as socio-economic factors, institutional factors, and inadequate preparation, prevent students from accessing technical and community college programs in the first place (FHI 360, 2017). Additionally, an inability to navigate the college environment and make connections between coursework and life prevent students from completing their technical degrees and graduating (Levesque, 2018).

Despite these challenges, recent efforts in research and practice from the region have shown that overcoming barriers to technical education is both possible and sustainable. To better understand the challenges and successes of sustaining technical education improvement in LAC, the panel begins with an overview of a study on skill development across Latin America that provides important insight into the gaps in higher education and technical education in the region, including relevance, quality, and efficiency of education. The study offers recommendations for sustainable change at the national and policy levels. The panel next takes a closer look at three countries in Central America and the Caribbean by examining the results of a study of barriers to access and completion (SBAC) of technical education in Honduras, Guatemala, and Jamaica. This study identifies barriers that inform the development of sustainable solutions to strengthen market-relevant technical degree programs in the region. Finally, the panel concludes with a case study that highlights ways in which one technical training institute in Jamaica has applied lessons learned from a barriers study to help students overcome obstacles to access and completion by applying a framework for sustainable change management.

Sub Unit

• SIG: Latin America

Individual Presentations

• Technical education and professional training in Latin America: Challenges and opportunities - Maria Oviedo, Inter-American Dialogue; Ariel Fiszbein, Inter-American Dialogue

• Evidence of barriers to access and completion of technical education in LAC - Ana Florez, FHI 360

• Case study: Creating sustainable change in technical education in Jamaica - Delize Williams, Vocational Training Development Institute

Discussant

• Michael Lisman, US Agency for International Development (USAID)