6
The Fast Track to New Skills
Table O.1 In LAC, Students in SCPs Are More Disadvantaged and Less Traditional Than Those in Bachelor’s Programs Bachelor’s students Female (%) Age (years) Urban (%) Married (%) Employed (%) Income Q1 (%) Income Q2 (%) Income Q3 (%) Income Q4 (%) Income Q5 (%)
Short-cycle students
54.4 24.0 90.3 14.5 41.8 8.9 13.1 19.0 23.9 35.0
63.1 24.9 80.8 22.6 43.6 14.4 17.0 23.5 25.9 19.3
Source: World Bank calculations based on Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC). Note: The table shows averages of characteristics of students enrolled in bachelor’s and short-cycle programs (SCPs), regardless of age, circa 2018. Simple averages over LAC countries are shown. “Urban” denotes the percentage of students residing in urban areas. “Employed” denotes whether the student works, full or part time. A part-time (full-time) worker works less than (at least) 40 hours a week. “Income Q1” denotes the percentage of students in quintile 1 of the income distribution (bottom 20 percent), and similarly for the remaining quintiles. The quintiles of the income distribution correspond to total household income (ingreso total familiar). Differences in average characteristics between SCP and bachelor’s students are significantly different from zero. LAC = Latin America and the Caribbean. Countries included are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, and Uruguay.
Figure O.3 In LAC, SCPs Have Higher Completion Rates Than Bachelor’s Programs 100
Percent
80 60 40 20
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Short Cycle
Source: World Bank calculations based on the Socio-Economic Database for Latin America and the Caribbean (SEDLAC). and administrative data for Brazil and Colombia. Note: For each country, the figure shows completion rates for students enrolled in bachelor’s and short-cycle programs (SCPs), circa 2018. Completion rates are estimated as the ratio of the number of individuals ages 25–29 years who have completed a higher education program to the number of individuals ages 25–29 years who have ever started a higher education program. For each country, the difference between the two graduation rates is significantly different from zero. For Colombia and Brazil, completion rates for bachelor’s programs are the ratio of the average number of graduates in 2014, 2015, and 2016 to the number of incoming students in 2010; the completion rates for SCPs are the ratio of the average number of graduates in 2012, 2013, and 2014 to the number of incoming students in 2010. ”LAC” indicates the simple average over all countries depicted in the figure.
