Elder Care as an Employment Opportunity: The Experience of Ecuador

Rising life expectancy reflects significant advances in health, nutrition, and well-being across Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet this achievement also brings new challenges. Population aging is rapidly transforming labor markets throughout the region. In Ecuador, this demographic transition presents a dual challenge: meeting the growing demand for care services for older adults while creating quality jobs in a sector that has historically remained invisible.

According to the IDB’s Panorama of Aging and Long-Term Care, life expectancy in Ecuador has increased from approximately 48 years in 1950 to 77 years today, surpassing the regional average. By 2050, the country is expected to have 165 older adults for every 100 children, and the number of older people requiring care is projected to triple.

In response, the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), together with Ecuador’s Ministry of Labor, the Public Enterprise of the Eloy Alfaro Lay University of Manabí (ULEAM-EP), and with support from the Japanese Special Fund, has launched a training and labor competency certification program for elder care workers under IDB Cares, an initiative that aims to professionalize the care sector across the region. 

Ecuador’s 2025 National Employment, Unemployment, and Underemployment Survey (ENEMDU) reveals a significant labor force participation gap: approximately 78% of men participate in the labor force compared with 52% of women.

According to IDB projections, the care sector could generate approximately 383,000 jobs in Ecuador and 12.9 million jobs across the region by 2035. However, turning this potential into quality employment requires advancing training, certification, and competency recognition systems aligned with official standards and labor market needs. 

The program, offered free of charge and focused on the provinces of Manabí and Santo Domingo, targets Ecuadorians, returnees, and people in situations of human mobility, including migrants and refugees. The initiative consists of two complementary and independent components:

Competency-Based Training 

• The first component is a training process aligned with the sector’s official occupational profiles. Participants receive certification endorsed by ULEAM-EP and recognized by the Ministry of Labor, providing formal validity within Ecuador’s labor market.
• The program follows a dual-training model that combines classroom instruction with practical experience in real-world settings, including hospitals, public institutions, foundations, and universities. The approach focuses on promoting the dignity and autonomy of older adults rather than solely addressing assistance-related tasks.
• The two core modules cover comprehensive care (aging, biosafety, mobility, communication, and care documentation) and autonomy and social connections (emotional well-being, active participation, and risk prevention).
• Training also includes employability skills such as soft skills development, leadership, CPR and first aid, résumé preparation, and access to Encuentra Empleo, Ecuador’s public employment platform.
• The program consists of 120 hours of instruction (80 theoretical and 40 practical hours). Currently, 270 participants are enrolled, with a target of training 300 caregivers by mid-2026. 

Labor Competency Certification 

The second component is labor competency certification, a theoretical and practical assessment process conducted by ULEAM-EP and endorsed by the Ministry of Labor. This certification formally recognizes caregivers’ competencies according to the standards established by the Ministry’s Undersecretariat for Qualifications and Artisan Management. It is available both to participants who complete the training and to individuals with verifiable work experience caring for older adults.

Beyond validating knowledge and experience, the certification is registered within official government systems, facilitating access to formal employment opportunities, labor mobility, and nationwide recognition of caregiving as a profession. 

The initiative also incorporates a human mobility perspective, recognizing that migrants, refugees, and returnees often face greater barriers to formal employment, even when they have prior experience in caregiving.

To address this challenge, the program promotes competency-based labor market integration. This approach not only expands employment opportunities for vulnerable populations but also helps strengthen the available talent pool and improve productivity within the care labor market. 
 

This initiative is being implemented within a context of important regulatory advances in Ecuador. In May 2023, the country approved the Organic Law on the Right to Human Care, which recognizes and regulates the right to care as part of its constitutional framework. 

The Ministry of Labor is one of the four governing bodies responsible for implementing the law. The initiative also aligns with the recent approval of Ecuador’s Dual Training Law, which for the first time incorporates workforce training as part of the country’s dual education strategies.  

This experience demonstrates how collaboration among public policy institutions, academia, and international cooperation can translate into concrete solutions to labor market and population aging challenges.

Professionalizing care work not only improves the quality of services for a rapidly growing population; it also recognizes care as an essential economic activity capable of generating employment, productivity, and well-being.

Investing in the training and certification of caregivers is also an investment in more dynamic labor markets, better living conditions for older adults, and a future in which care work is recognized as a source of decent employment and meaningful opportunities.

If you would like to learn more about the situation of caregivers in Latin America and the Caribbean, download Who Cares? How to Support and Ensure Recognition for Caregivers for Older People in Latin America and the Caribbean, a report that analyzes the growing demand for long-term care workers across the region.