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Lifelong Learning. A policy framework for skill acquisition in Latin America and the Caribbean? World Bank September 13, 2005. The storyline.
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Lifelong Learning A policy framework for skill acquisition in Latin America and the Caribbean? World Bank September 13, 2005
The storyline • The growing demand for skilled workers in the face of growing global economic interdependence • The weak educational foundations, unevenly distributed in the adult population • A Lifelong Learning framework for leveraging training investment
The Diverging paths: • LAC has seen a remarkable growth in the relative wages of the most skilled workers—those with tertiary education. • In contrast the relative wages of the workers with secondary education tend to stagnate or deteriorate.
Changes in relative wages in tertiary and secondary education
What accounts for the patterns? • To a great extent, the increase in relative wages to tertiary-level education has resulted from shifts in the demand for qualified, skilled workers by firms • Changes are occurring in same sectors in different countries and in sectors which opened up to trade, in particular trade which is intensive in R&D SO… • Increases in the demand for skilled workers are related to patterns of integration of LAC countries in the “global knowledge economy” • Trade is a vehicle transmitting skill-biased technological change (increases productivity and relative wages)
Latin American countries tend to be under-educated relative to their incomes
Some countries have an unbalanced education development • While most Latin American countries follow a balanced but slow education transition. • Some countries like Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador and Venezuela have the bulk of population with some primary schooling and more individuals with tertiary education than secondary.
LAC the most unequal region • LAC income inequality is wider than any other region of the world (the nine most unequal countries are in LAC). • Income inequality in the region has increased since World War II • During the 90’s, inequality increased but not uniformly across countries: Argentina has experienced dramatic increases in inequality while in Brazil inequality has fallen
Latin America is unusually unequal in income differences… Gini coefficient: distribution of household per capita income, regions of the world, 1990s Source: Authors’ calculations based on UNU/WIDER-UNDP World Income; Inequality Database, Version 1.0, September 2000.
Education is central to the reproduction of inequalityExample: differences in years of education between top and bottom quintiles, 1990 and 2000 8 7 6 5 4 3 Peru Chile Brazil Mexico Panama Ecuador Uruguay Paraguay Argentina Honduras Nicaragua Venezuela Costa Rica El Salvador Around 1990 Around 2000
Secondary Education remains the priority • Countries without a large fraction of the workforce with at least secondary education do not attract advanced technologies—and when they do, there are few “knowledge spillovers” • Secondary education as a necessary stepping stone to university-level education • Countries which have had the most successful educational transitions have done so sequentially
Demand side Cost of schooling Opportunity Cost Low rate of return Supply side School Infrastructure Teacher shortage Private sector Scholarships Cash transfer/attendance Certification of basic skills Fees in Higher education Reconverting primary schools Scholarships in higher education Funding formula, vouchers, charter schools Removing constraints to secondary education development
Does lifelong learning provide a useful framework to guide policy makers in shaping policies that address the challenges of skill development in Latin America and the Caribbean?
The case studies: • Peru: Skill acquisition in “High Tech”Export Agriculture (Martin Carnoy, Tom Luschei and Enrique Aldave) • Brazil: Mapping the “invisible lifelong learning non-system (Elenice Leite) • Colombia: The demand for training ( Felipe Barrera Osorio and Lucas Higuera) • Costa Rica: Learning and training for work (Hernan Araneda) • Dominican Republic: Lifelong learning in the labor force (Rolando Guzman) • Jamaica: Building a lifelong learning strategy (Lorraine Blank, Tom Mc Ardle) • Mexico: The Educational status of out of School adults in Mexico (Roger Diaz de Cosio and Alfonso Ramón Bagur) • Chile: Meeting the challenge of the knowledge economy (Hernan Araneda)
The main findings: • LLL foundations are weak • Employers and individuals make substantial investments in post school LLL • Much of post school LL is job related training for younger workers • The articulation between formal schooling and post school LLL is weak • Participation in post school LLL is more unequal than formal schooling • Education and training policies are not aligned in a LLL framework
Implications for policy • An LLL inventory • LLL as a framework to guide adult education and training • Filling the gaps: targeted intervention in LLL • LLL and new opportunities • Financing lifelong learning
Lifelong Learning is more Necessity than Luxury • Rapid and continuous change in technology • Organizational changes at firm level • Short job tenure in competitive sectors
Then Information based Rote learning Teacher directed Just in case Formal education only Directive based Learn at a given age Terminal education Now Knowledge creation/ application Analysis and synthesis Collaborative learning Just in time Variety of learning modes Initiative based Incentives, motivation to learn Lifelong learning Learning in the Knowledge Economy
Knowledge Economy and Lifelong Learning Require Rethinking of Education and Training • Knowledge economy puts premium on learning and skills • Increased access to learning–through home, school, job • Chances of lagging further behind–“Digital Divide” • Transformation of learning
A New Architecture for Education and Training • New skills and competences • New pathways to learning • Governance system • Financing options
New Skills and Competences • Traditional academic skills • Literacy, numeracy, • Science, technology/ICT, international language • Emerging need for different skills • self-regulated learning • tolerance for ambiguity • creative thinking • ability to work in a team • learning how to learn
New Pathways to Learning • Increased access to learning opportunities • Variety of ways learners can learn • Increased access to knowledge resources • Additional/diverse learning modalities • Modular, Part-time, Distance/e-learning,.. • Different approach to learning (pedagogy) • Changing role of teachers, curricula, technology
Financing Lifelong Learning: Challenges • Expenditures increase, public resources limited • Priority for public: basic education • Balance between subsidies and market mechanisms given that • Benefits both private and public • Access to capital uneven
Building the missing lifelong learning framework • Adapting curriculum, pedagogy and objectives within the education system, to give to everyone the foundations for autonomous learning (at school and for adults) • Promoting complementarities between education and training, formal and informal learning, public and private provision (learning pathways) • Revamping training policies (modular, competencies based, certification of achievement) • Creating alternative modes of financing to stimulate demand and provision of training
Questions for a debate: • In a context of limited financing, are investments in formal secondary and investments in out of school unskilled youth conflicting priorities? • Should public financing focus on providing foundation skills leaving to the private sector the more costly vocational training. • Is it the right policy to target LLL on youth considering that LLL start in early childhood. • With a LLL policy stimulating the individual investment is there a risk of increasing inequity.
