Conclusions

According to the program directors, students are typically wary of taking a loan at a commercial bank, often because of lack of familiarity with the financial system. Hence, even when external funding is available, students do not seem to use it.

Pathways to a Bachelor’s Degree

If students view an SCP as a “dead end” because it does not allow them to pursue a bachelor’s degree afterward, then allowing the SCP classes to count as credit toward a longer degree might enhance their attractiveness. Indeed, the vast majority of programs (more than 95 percent in Brazil, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic, and 80–85 percent in Ecuador and Peru) report that their classes provide credits toward a bachelor’s program. Nonetheless, few students from SCP programs seem to go on to bachelor’s programs. Administrative data from Colombia show that, among the students who began their SCP in 2006, only 7 percent continued to a bachelor’s program, and only 3.15 percent earned a bachelor’s degree. 23 For comparison, in the United States, the latter proportion is 14 percent.24

In other words, although SCPs claim to provide credits for longer credentials, in practice, this might not be the case. Anecdotal evidence indicates that credits do not transfer seamlessly even among bachelor’s programs, from the same or different institutions. Bachelor’s programs, then, might be even less likely to accept credits from SCPs, as they might view these as having lower or unverifiable quality.

Conclusions

In LAC, finishing an SCP delivers better labor market outcomes than starting but not finishing a bachelor’s program. Since about half of the students in bachelor’s programs in LAC drop out, SCPs emerge as an attractive alternative—not only for those students, but also for others. Importantly, SCPs deliver better outcomes, although they take in more disadvantaged students than those in bachelor’s programs. Not only are SCPs’ labor market outcomes better, they also graduate students at higher rates.

It is surprising, then, that SCPs are less widespread in LAC than in other regions. Although social stigma might partly explain this, there are two other potential explanations. The first is the lack of affordability of SCPs for some students. Indeed, governments provide greater per-student subsidies for bachelor’s programs than for SCPs—although students in the latter are more disadvantaged and hence in greater need of the subsidy. As a result, financial hardship is the main reason why students drop out of SCPs, although they are relatively affordable. The second explanation is the lack of pathways from an SCP toward a longer degree. Although programs claim to provide these pathways, administrative and anecdotal evidence indicates that these pathways are rare. These two elements—less favorable funding for SCPs than for bachelor’s degrees and lack of pathways from an SCP to a bachelor’s degree—might in turn exacerbate the original stigma and deter students from pursuing SCPs.