Synergies between Education and Employment: who is being left behind and what can be done about it?
Research on the effects of access to education and on employment conditions is abundant. However, the effects of basic education of quality on labour opportunities remain an elusive black box in many countries of the Global South. Particularly, in regard to the disadvantaged groups.
As part of the UN Global Goals Week 2019, Southern Voice, GRADE and Aru Foundation hosted a webinar. The presentations included an interpretation and identification of the left behind in SDG 4 (Access to Quality Education) and SDG 8 (Access to Decent Work) in Peru and Bolivia and the synergies between these two SDGs. The speakers were Lorena Alcázar from GRADE, Peru, and Werner Hernani-Limarino from ARU Foundation, Bolivia. They are part of Southern Voice’s “State of the SDGs” initiative. In addition, both researchers looked at the lessons that can be drawn from the two cases for similar societies.
The left behind: who are they?
Research in Peru created a profile of the disadvantaged (the “left behind”). In terms of education, for instance, the left behind in primary age reading are indigenous, underweight children, from families at the lowest socioeconomic level, with parents with unfinished primary education, and attending rural public schools. The case of mathematics is similar but adding “being girl” as an attribute. Children with these characteristics are 83% and 84%, respectively, more likely to being left behind than their counterparts. In terms of employment, the first profile created was the NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). Youth with high probability of being a NEET are women living with children under 5 years old, married or cohabitating, with unfinished primary education, living in extreme urban poverty, and with a disability. A second profile was a new measure of youth labor vulnerability: those working in precarious jobs. The profile is similar but the women are located in rural Andean areas and are indigenous. In both cases, women with these characteristics have a 91% higher probability of being left behind than the reference group.
In the case of Bolivia, there could be two ways of identifying the left behind. The first way is by establishing a threshold in education and identify who is learning behind that edge. The second way is by analyzing the learning conditions of marginalized groups such as women or indigenous people. However, in the country, both ways are not relevant due to a system that is not working in terms of education and employment for anybody. In that sense, according to Werner Hernani-Limarino, the solution is not to fix parts of the system or to incorporate more students, but to rethink it. “Trying to give everyone in the system (teachers, administrators, students and parents) different sets of incentives for making the system works”, he stated.
Synergies between education and employment
The findings in Peru estimated important synergies between access to quality education and access to decent jobs. For example, being left behind in reading at 15 years old, increases the probability of precarious employment at 22 years old by 14%. In addition, although being left behind in education is not an important determinant of being a NEET, it is very relevant in terms of working precariously. One interesting finding is that not finishing basic schooling increases the probabilities of being left behind in terms of employment, but these probabilities are lower than those of being left behind in access to quality of education. “Is not access to education what matters, but access to education of quality”, said Lorena Alcázar. The study also shows that being a woman has no significant effect in access to quality education, but has a strong effect on access to decent jobs. Besides, being indigenous is a significant determinant of being left behind both in terms of access to education and to decent employment. Findings also reveal that Peruvian indigenous women are highly likely to receive subpar education and face precarious and unstable employment.
According to Werner Hernani-Limarino, a system that creates synergies between education and employment is one that generates real skills and learning and use both in the production process. However, in Bolivia, this is not the case for two factors. One factor is that people who attend school are not learning. Another factor is that, for the last five years, the labor market values more social and political connections. “The question is not much about which is the magical input that is going to improve everything, but how do we redesign the rules to make the system works”, he said.
Keeping “on track” to achieve SDG 4 and SDG 8
The studies show diferent connections between quality education and access to decent employment. But both cases pose that if countries invest in education of quality and ensure all people get access to it, countries will have better results in access to decent jobs. “Governments should invest in quality education focusing in remote areas and it is important that education programs take gender focus into consideration”, closed Lorena Alcázar. As stated by Werner Hernani-Limarino, it is key to link skills and learning, generated by education systems, to the production process.
