Vocational and technical education in Peru

[Poicy, Planning, or d Research WORKING PAPERS Education and Employment Population and Human Resources Department The World Bank October 1988 WPS 87 Vocational and Technical Education in Peru Peter Moock and Rosemary Bellew Peruvian vocational and technical students often end up working in the same jobs for the same earnings as academic students - probably because teaching in both streams is largely "chalk and taLk" and vocational and technical education students get little "hands-on" technical experience in school. The Policy. Planning. and Research Cornplex distributes PPR Woking Papers to disseninate the findings of weok in pgrss and to enoourage the exchange of ideas among Bank staff and al others interested in development issues. These papes carry the nan of the authors, reflect only their views, and should be used and cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusiors are the authors'own. They should not beattributed totheWorld Bank, its Board of Directors, itsmanagement, or any of its membcrcountries.  Plc,Planning, and Resea,ch Education and Employment The costs of the academic and the vocational than the quality of education for academic and technical education (VTE) streams in Peru students in the same areas. are very close. What's more, the monetary returns to, and occupational profiles of, gradu- Why, for other groups, do the two educa- ates of the two streams are almost identical- tional streamis produce almost identical retums with one exception. and graduates with similar occupational pro- files? VTE institutions, funded at the same level For the self-employed who live in urban as academic institutions, can't afford the inputs areas outside Lima, the retums to secondary that make VTE genuinely technical, so the technical education are significantly lower than students get little "hands-on" technical experi- the retums to secondary general education. This ence in school. Despite declared differences in may be because the quality of VTE programs for emphases and goals, programs and curricula in urban students outside Lima is generally lower the two streams are substantially alike - largely "chalk and talk." This paper is a product of the Education and Employment Division, Population and Human Resources Department. Copies are available free from the World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington DC 20433. Please contact C. Cristobal, room S6-001, extension 33648. The PPR Workino Paper Series disseminates the findings of work under way in the Bank's Policy, Planning, and Research Complex. An objective of the series is to get these findings out quickly, even if presentations are less than fully polished. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in these papers do not necessarily represent official policy of the Bank. Copyright