Community Colleges: A Model for Latin America?

This IDB book includes presentations from the international policy dialogue seminar entitled "New Options for Higher Education in Latin America: Lessons from the Community College Experience." The seminar was sponsored by the Inter-American Development Bank and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education, and held from September 4-8, 2000. The event was attended by participants from 16 Latin American countries and the United States, and included small group discussions of the community college model as well as several short-term post secondary career initiatives being implemented in Latin America. This book explores how these institutions can help address the very challenges faced by post-secondary education in the region: an expanding and heterogeneous clientele, a lack of alternative social mobility options for people unable to attend traditional universities, and the need for more relevant curriculum that emphasized knowledge and skills better attuned to the needs of the job market.