Is Hybrid Professional Education Here to Stay?

When people talk about the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on education, few mention the more than 20 million affected students who were being trained in the more than 30 vocational training institutions that were just taking their first steps in virtual education, according to estimates by the International Labor Organization.

As in other sectors, young people and women were the most affected; the first group due to the rapid loss of jobs and even the closure of economic activities in which they had been participating more intensively, such as commerce, restaurants and services; and the second due to the excessive care responsibilities of women in confined households, who were usually also engaged in part-time employment or study.

These are some of the findings from the CAF publication The New Normal and Vocational Training. There were contributions from the experience of four training institutions where attempts were made to characterize the processes involved in returning to in-person attendance at a sample of four Vocational Training Institutions (VTIs) in the region: The Industrial Apprenticeship Service of Brazil (SENAI), the Apprenticeship Service of Colombia (SENA), the Apprenticeship Institute of Costa Rica (INA) and the Institute for Technical Vocational Training of the Dominican Republic (INFOTEP).

“The pandemic can be viewed as a trial stage for vocational training. It forced institutions to quickly migrate to virtual approaches, learning how to do so ad hoc. There was an additional merit that was pointed out by many of those surveyed: it acted as a catalyst for imminent change processes which, outside of the pandemic, could take years. What we learned during this period must now be capitalized on so that we can digitally transform vocational training in a more planned way,” says Felipe Migues, economist and author of the study.

The technological disruption accelerated by the pandemic opened the door to virtual approaches, but also made it clear that it is a process that does not apply to everyone and that national borders are no longer a limiting factor in working or training in various areas. Two years later, there seems to be a consensus to take the lessons learned and enhance hybrid vocational training.

When asked if hybrid education is here to stay, Bibiam Díaz, an education specialist at CAF Development Bank of Latin America, replied: “Yes, and now that we have gradually returned to in-person attendance, the challenge for educational institutions—including vocational training institutions—is to capitalize on the lessons learned regarding the inclusion of technological tools, and continue towards a process of digital transformation in all dimensions of their management.”

The specialist added that, as stated in the report published by CAF, professional training must accelerate the inclusion of those skills demanded by new, hi-tech labor markets, as well as undertake institutional modernization processes that improve its capacity to provide solutions to companies and consolidate alliances to broaden its impact.

CAF alliance with 17 universities

An example of the potential that hybrid vocational training has in the region is the launch of the Diploma in Governance and Public Innovation for Leaders in Latin America and the Caribbean, issued by CAF in conjunction with 17 universities to contribute to institutional strengthening through the training of leaders in the region for the effective performance of their functions, from a perspective that seeks to ensure an appropriate balance of political, economic, social, climate and gender variables.

The diploma is aimed at leaders who work on issues related to innovation and public management (national and subnational), the private sector, civil society, and suchlike, with a focus on strategic issues for the region such as: productive, sustainable and inclusive reactivation; digital transformation; gender and inclusion; biodiversity and climate change; innovation; circular and sustainable economies; and incorporating the 2030 SDG agenda into public and private practices, among others issues.

The diploma has a mixed approach, in which 50% of the training is delivered online by CAF, while the remaining 50% is delivered by universities in Argentina, Barbados, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Trinidad and Tobago, Spain, Uruguay and Venezuela.