CAF and Universidad de los Andes will work together to strengthen technical and technological education in Colombia.

CAF -Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean-, and the Universidad de los Andes signed on Monday, April 29, a Memorandum of Understanding with the purpose of strengthening technical and technological training (T&T) in Colombia, with the potential to reach the rest of the region.

According to figures from the National Administrative Department of Statistics (Dane), for the national total in the December 2023 - February 2024 mobile quarter, the population of young people between 15 and 28 years old who were neither studying nor employed was 2,997,000 people. This represented 26.8% of the people of working age for that age range. By sex, this ratio for men was 9.3% and for women it was 17.5%. This is one of the motivations for joining efforts between the education sector and the productive sector to provide a much more relevant training offer for young people that recognizes the transformations of the national and regional labor markets.

The agreement signed by the rector of the Universidad de los Andes, Raquel Bernal, and the executive president of CAF, Sergio Díaz-Granados, contemplates the development of a proposal for the creation of a new Higher Education Institution or the transformation of an existing one that allows the promotion of T&T training.

"Technical and technological education is fundamental for the development of Colombia and the region because it contributes to reducing social gaps through the generation of skills and abilities to access quality educational opportunities that improve people's job placement and overall well-being; that is why we are very pleased to have an ally like the Universidad de los Andes to achieve this," said Sergio Díaz-Granados, CAF's executive president.

For her part, the rector of Universidad de los Andes, Raquel Bernal, said: "We are seeking to create a technical and technological institution. Our intention is that, if this is achieved with the very high quality and excellence that characterizes the Uniandes brand, we can really have a significant impact on the post-secondary education sector, which offers many possible paths. We want to address the different types of training, other than traditional university education, understanding that in Colombia there is a need for other forms of training, specifically technical and technological".

Both parties will promote the generation of spaces for the exchange of knowledge with Latin American and Caribbean experiences in the creation and implementation of T&T training offers, particularly in projects supported by CAF; as well as the expansion and strengthening of the offer of T&T training programs from a new institution or the transformation of an existing one, among other initiatives.