A private institution offers employability in a time of change

Duoc UC, whose name derives from the Spanish acronym for ‘university department for workers and peasants’ – Departamento Universitario Obrero y Campesino – provides affordable professional and technical education to more than 70,000 low- and middle-income students on more than 40 campuses around Chile.

The institution has received some US$30 million from the International Finance Corporation, or IFC, to invest and expand its provision at a time of considerable change in Chile’s higher education landscape.

Duoc UC Rector Jaime Alcalde reponded to questions from University World News at the IFC’s private education conference held in Dubai from 6-8 March.

UWN: What is the impact of student protests on DUOC?

Alcalde: First of all, I think it's important to explain the context. At present, enrolment in Chile's higher education is broken down as follows: 33% of students attend private universities; 28% attend traditional universities or those belonging to CRUCH [Council of Deans of Chilean Universities]; and 39% attend one of the technical-professional institutes of higher education.

The reforms adopted in the course of this year will define the education that Chile will offer its youth during this and the coming generations, and as Duoc UC we must be part of the solution in any conflict that involves what is most important in our institution, namely, our students.

Our students will be the major beneficiaries if important agreements are reached. The concerns and issues of Duoc UC students are channelled through the student councils or student delegates, who are democratically elected by their peers.

Since January 2011, there has been a Council of Accredited Professional Institutes and Technical Training Centres, which group together 10 organisations of this kind. Through this council, student demands – mostly related to funding policies that thus far have been designed by the state – have been presented to the Chilean president and parliament.

During 2011, the national protests did not affect our students. Classes were not suspended in any of our campuses, nor were any occupied by students.

UWN: Duoc UC focuses on making disadvantaged students more employable. How do you achieve this?

Alcalde: We only recently achieved universal secondary education, while higher education has expanded massively in the past 10 years to more than 30% [participation rate] in several countries in Latin America.

This impacts greatly on the quality of education, its regulatory framework and modes of provision. On the other hand all countries, in varying degrees, have economies that are more open than in the past. This forces you to be competitive, and quality education is key to success.

In Latin America there is a deficit of professionals and technical people, aside from the need to raise their quality. One of the main weaknesses of workers is the lack of job market skills. The current labour force is unprepared for the demands of the modern world, which is based on information and communication technologies. Consequently, our human capital needs continually to be upgraded.

Lately we've received several signs from international organisations such as the OECD and UNESCO that are looking to create incentives for training technicians, and they tell us that universities are not the only option for young people; rather they visualise training in technical fields as an option that is equally valid or more so.

Training cannot solely be centralised in universities. A country's development cannot stand apart from the link-up between institutions of higher education and companies. The training of human capital is strongly associated with the environment in which that human capital will carry out its function.

The link-up with institutions of higher education is critical for companies, so that training requirements can be identified and the former can be informed of companies' state-of-the-art developments. Institutional curricula should be adequate for this context, so that students' graduate profiles will be congruent with the market's requirements.

On the other hand, it is also important that collaborative projects be generated between educational institutions and companies. This is the only way for us to attain our aspirations.

Our country needs more institutions that provide training opportunities to thousands of young people who are unclear about their professional future and the options offered by our system of higher education.

We must be able to tell the thousands of youths who don't have the option of attending university and are on the threshold of taking a decision that will impact on their future development, that there are institutions with the requisite quality and relevance built into their academic programmes to meet the standards of training required by industry.

UWN: How many Duoc UC students have professional and technical careers that utilise their learning and skills?

Alcalde: Duoc UC sees its commitment to its students and their families as unfinished if it does not translate into the successful achievement by its students of well-remunerated employment that will generate social mobility. The kind of technical-professional training that we offer our students is extremely attractive to the productive sector.

Two areas that we can cite as examples are IT and administration. Out of a total of 28 programmes, two-thirds have a better than 85% success rate in graduates obtaining employment. They are the leading performers in terms of employability rates.

Out of the 10 programmes with the best employability rates, seven are technical, including foreign trade, financial administration and electrical technician.

UWN: How does Duoc UC expect to grow in the future?

Alcalde: The distribution of higher education students in Chile, according to income quintile, shows that there is a more favourable distribution for students from the first three lower-income quintiles in professional institutes and professional training institutes.

Out of the total number of students that enrol in universities, 39% come from the first three quintiles compared to 56% of enrollees in professional institutes and professional training centres. A total of 390,000 students are enrolled in vocational education programmes, and after completing two- or four-year programmes they will be able to access more and better opportunities in the working world.

At present, Duoc UC has 70,000 students around Chile. Of this total, over 40% work and study at the same time and 75% are the first generation in their families to access higher education. One of Duoc UC's goals for 2015 is to have 100,000 students, using the educational model that our institution defines as the ‘job competency-based training method’.

Among other things Duoc UC's school of engineering is working on a tactical strategic plan to expand its educational offering to include important industries, including Chilean companies with significant growth potential and that are internationally active.

The idea is to work with companies that value the integrated development of their workers. In other words, it should include training based on employability skills, and not merely based on knowledge.

Duoc UC focuses on the most vulnerable quintiles of the population, which increases the potential impacts.

* Q&As are edited for length and clarity.