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Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) has expanded dramatically in the new millennium, yet enrollment in short-cycle programs (SCPs) is still relatively low. Shorter and more practical than bachelor's programs, SCPs can form skilled human capital fast. The economic crisis created by the [Coronavirus Disease 2019] COVID-19 pandemic has accentuated underlying trends, such as automation, the use of electronic platforms, and the need for lifelong learning. Addressing these demands requires the urgent upskilling and reskilling of the population - a task for which SCPs are uniquely suited. This publication explores the labor market outcomes and returns of SCPs, examines their providers, and identifies the practices adopted by the best programs.

Relying on unique data that includes a novel survey of SCP directors in five LAC countries [Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, Peru], it finds that while SCPs generate, on average, good labor market outcomes, they vary greatly in quality. SCP providers respond quickly and flexibly to local economy needs; and specific practices related to faculty, job search assistance, and interaction with prospective employers are distinctive of the best programs. Drawing on these findings, this publication discusses how to create an environment where good programs are offered and students have the interest and means to attend them. It draws attention to a higher education sector that has been typically overlooked, both in research and policy.

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Labor market institutions shape the return to workers' skills. They define the incentives of firms and workers to invest in general and specific skills, affecting the returns to experience and tenure. This paper presents an empirical assessment of this hypothesis. We take advantage of rich administrative data from Brazil and Chile, two countries with different regulatory frameworks. We focus on young workers as they face to a greater extent the trade-off between accumulating general or specific skills. The analysis is motivated by a simple conceptual framework, from which we derive empirical predictions. It takes into account the potential endogeneity of occupational choices, while allowing for heterogenous returns to tenure and experience.

We find positive average returns to both dimensions in both countries, with larger returns to tenure in Brazil and larger returns to experience in Chile. This is consistent with the original conjecture as the more rigid labor market legislation in Brazil encourages firms to carry out additional investments in young workers' specific skills. Chile's institutions, on the contrary, promote the acquisition of general skills. We further examine how these returns differ by educational attainment, an important policy consideration in the region, and find that more educated workers in both countries face larger returns to experience and tenure relative to their less educated counterparts.

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Understanding the causal association between skills and productivity is essential for designing effective training programs. This paper evaluates an intervention aimed at boosting leadership and communication skills among store managers and sales associates from a large Latin American retailer. The empirical analysis is carried out using longitudinal information gathered by the firm and through two skills surveys. The identification exploits the experimental design in the context of a difference-in-difference strategy. The results indicate large positive effects of the training program on store-level productivity. We further link these findings to individual-level performance measures. In particular, we document positive effects on total sales and numbers of transactions for all workers. Regarding the mechanisms, we provide evidence suggesting that the intervention was more effective in boosting leadership skills than communication skills. Spillovers from trained managers to untrained sales representatives also contribute to the main effects. Our findings point towards the possibility of increasing productivity through training programs targeting critical skills.

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This report analyses the relationship between schooling and employers, and distinguishes among different types of skills and the relationship of each type to employment outcomes and employer needs. It examines both the demand and the supply side of the labour market, and provides guidance for further work. The study finds that within the more general problem of quality of education there is also a disconnect between the skills that the education system is currently producing and the ones that the market demands from young people transitioning from secondary school to work, who constitute the largest group of new workers in the region.

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This paper uses empirical data to examine the social demand for adult learning in Argentina. Questions are addressed on the relation between potential and actual demand, the social conditions which affect the emergence of social demand and the means of intervening in political and institutional dynamics of work and adult education. The volume of papers is indexed at TD/INT 58.500. Show less

Higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean has expanded dramatically in the past 15 years as the average gross enrollment rate has more than doubled and many new institutions and programs have been opened. Although higher education access has become more equitable and higher education supply has become more varied, many of the 'new' students in the system are, on average, less academically ready than are their more advantaged counterparts. Furthermore, only half of higher education students, on average, complete their degree, and labor market returns to higher education vary greatly across institutions and programs. Thus, higher education is at a crossroads today. Given the region's urgency to raise productivity in a low-growth, fiscally constrained environment, going past this crossroads requires the formation of skilled human capital fast and efficiently.

This publication contributes to the discussion by studying quality, variety, and equity of higher education in Latin America and the Caribbean. It presents comprehensive evidence on the recent higher education expansion and evolution of higher education labor market returns. Using novel data and state-of-the-art methods, it studies demand and supply drivers of the recent expansion. It investigates the behavior of institutions and students and explores the unintended consequences of large-scale higher education policies. Framing the analysis are the singular characteristics of the higher education market and the market segmentation induced by the variety of students and institutions in the system. At this crossroads, a role emerges for incentives, information, accountability, and choice.

Edited published abstract.

The contents are as follows: Overview; The rapid expansion of higher education in the new century / Ciro Avitabile; Equity, quality and variety of higher education / Francisco Haimovich Paz; The economic impact of higher education / Sergio Urzua; The demand side of the higher education expansion / Maria Marta Ferreyra; The supply side of the higher education expansion / Maria Marta Ferreyra; The current landscape of policies and institutions for higher education / Javier Botero Alvarez; Going forward. Show less

This paper examines a training intervention aimed at boosting leadership and communication skills among employees of a large Latin American retailer. The identification exploits an experimental design in the context of a difference-in-difference strategy. Using longitudinal information obtained from the firm and two skills surveys, we document large positive effects of the training on store- and individual- level productivity. The intervention was more effective in boosting leadership than communication skills. Spillovers from trained managers to untrained sales representatives also contribute to the main effects. Our findings confirm the possibility of increasing productivity through training targeting critical soft-skills.

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This paper estimates the labor market effects of enrolling in a short-cycle program in Colombia. Following evidence for the U.S., increasing access to short-cycle degrees might attract some students who would not have enrolled in higher education otherwise (i.e., the expansion or democratization margin), while also inducing other students to divert from bachelor's and into short-cycle degrees (i.e., the diversion margin). To identify responses along these margins, this paper uses an Instrumental Variables strategy and exploits local variation in the supply of short-cycle programs for the universe of high school graduates in 2005. Having at least one higher education institution specialized in short-cycle degrees within a 10 km radius of the student's high school municipality increases enrollment in short-cycle programs by 3 percentage points, or 30 per cent of the sample average. Results indicate that this enrollment increase is largely driven by students who would divert from bachelor's to short-cycle degrees due to changes in the local supply of short-cycle program. For these students, SCPs improve participation in the formal labor market among females, although they lead to lower monthly wages among males.

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In the last decades, countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have experienced a dramatic increase in the levels of higher education enrollment. Using administrative data from Chile and Colombia, [the authors] find that this phenomenon is not always associated with higher private individual returns. In both countries, there is a significant dispersion in the net returns to higher education and a significant proportion of graduates could be facing negative returns. This means that, for many higher education graduates, net earnings might have been higher if they had not earned a higher education degree. [The authors] hypothesize that while there have been major policy efforts to increase coverage, institutional arrangements that encourage quality and relevance has been insufficient. Corrective measures in this direction are urgent. Sustainable growth requires a labor force with relevant skills and capabilities. In light of [the authors'] results, it is not clear that the higher education systems in these countries are delivering these outcomes.

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This article seeks to indicate some of the aspects of lifelong education in Argentina. The hypothesis that continuing education reproduces and reinforces social differences is examined. The article then identifies some of the contradictions in the present socio-economic and political context which are challenging critical and participatory lifelong education. Qualitative and quantitative data refer to potential, actual and social demand for lifelong education, and the article concludes with reflections on lifelong education as a global policy confronting a historical crisis situation. Show less