Latin American employers cannot find the workers they need. Workers lack the right skills, but they don’t have time or resources to participate in training. Micro-credentials, a type of alternative credentials, could be a solution, given their targeted nature, as they can increase the number of workers with a specific skill. But, for micro-credentials to be a real solution, some challenges must still be addressed. How are other countries addressing these challenges?
Student performance on standardized tests is typically the main measure of school quality. However, is it the case that schools that improve academic test scores are the same schools that also improve important longer-run outcomes such as crime, risky behaviors, college attendance, and earnings?
In 2020, national school feeding programs delivered school meals to more children than at any time in human history, making this the most extensive social safety net in the world. Indeed, approximately $41-43 billion is spent annually on school feeding, which serves not only to create human capital to secure future national economic growth but also as an important investment in local economies.
Obtaining new credentials is a common strategy for workers looking to reskill in advance of a career change or re-employment following a layoff. Increasingly, individuals are seeking credentials, such as certificates, certifications, and badges, in order to maximize their marketability to employers or advance within their current position.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused nearly 15 million excess deaths across the globe. Although mortality rates are lowest among children and youth, the young face another emergency: the learning crisis.
Traditional degrees take years and often thousands of dollars to acquire—and they sometimes fail to prepare students for the workplace. They are costly for individuals, their families, companies, and society, in terms of both direct outlays and opportunity costs. Recognizing the high cost of a post-secondary degree, both students and employers are looking for more pertinent, shorter, less expensive, non-degree, alternative credentials (such as certifications and certificates) as both complements and alternatives to traditional degrees.
Although youth tend to have milder symptoms from the COVID-19 virus, the pandemic has brought unprecedented changes and challenges into their lives and particularly their mental health. Pandemic-related school closures have disrupted their learning and isolated them from peers.
The COVID-19 pandemic widened pre-existing opportunity, skills, and achievement gaps, with devastating impacts on our future generations. It has been more than two years and a half since the pandemic has changed the lives of165 million students in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), who, on average, lost 237 days of schooland faced tremendous learning losses.
The issue of education financing must be discussed and included in the public agenda because inaction or inertia will not mean preservation of the status quo but greater exclusion and deterioration of the social and productive fabric
When schools worldwide began shifting from face-to-face to virtual classrooms due to the pandemic, educators were forced to rethink and redesign their learning environments – essentially overnight. While technology in schools had been rising for years, few teachers had extensive experience in conducting learning in a mostly online environment.