The gap between the skills demanded by the labor market and those acquired by young Latin Americans in the classroom prevents them from gaining access to employment opportunities. Currently, the IDB carries out a comprehensive research agenda to determine the most effective strategies, policies, and interventions for closing this gap.

School to work transition and youth insertion in the labor market
By Jaime Vargas and Marina Bassi

Despite the sustained progress in terms of access to education in Latin America, learning and quality continue to be an endemic problem in the Region. Results of recent international PISA tests show that two thirds of high school students can identify only the basic ideas in a text. Read more

The quality of an education system cannot exceed the quality of its teachers. However, changing human resources policies is a complicated and long-term process that requires political will, technical capacity, continuity, and broad social support. The IDB supports policies and programs aimed at improving teacher quality. It also conducts a research agenda on teacher´s incentives and capacities.

A New Teaching Force
By Ana Santiago

The context in which teachers work has significantly changed over the past decade, yet teaching has not been sufficiently adapted to these new situations: teachers basically continue to have the same preparation and toolkit that they had before.
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