Inequality of opportunity in Peru: How can young people develop relevant skills and find decent employment in a rapidly changing labour market?

Lead Research Organisation: Lancaster University
Department Name: Economics

Abstract

Despite important economic and social achievements in Peru in the last decades, the country's education system and labour market remain both under-developed and highly unequal, hindering young people's possibilities for accessing meaningful jobs. Our research will examine the reasons behind this problem by looking at what drives young Peruvians' decision-making in relation to their higher education, training, and skill acquisition; what constrains the development of skills through childhood and adolescence; and why some young Peruvian men and women are more likely than others to find decent and meaningful work. We follow a three-tier approach:

We begin by looking at the factors affecting young people's decision to enrol in higher education, paying particular attention to the types of skills (cognitive and socio-emotional) that young people who access high- or low-quality higher education institutions possess. We also look at what defines young Peruvian men's and women's career choices, highlighting the role of social and gender norms.

We then turn to analysing specific sets of skills: cognitive (maths, language), socio-emotional (determination, teamwork), or technical (including digital). We evaluate how these each matter for accessing formal jobs with the aim of constructing education, skill and training profiles for young formal workers. Future earning expectations of young people are also examined to see whether they are matched with the labour market reality. This will shed light on whether incomplete information about the labour market is an underlying reason why young people engage in low-return activities.

Next, we focus on inequality in skills acquisition during childhood and adolescence. Specifically we examine who has access to quality education and training and the role of early-life circumstances in mediating the acquisition of relevant skills. We pay particular attention to the extent to which the basic education system in Peru is effective in developing appropriate skills. Ultimately, we aim to identify outstanding schools - those with very good students in challenging settings - and profile them in terms of their teacher, programme, and infrastructure characteristics.

Finally, we investigate the effectiveness of two particular initiatives that are aimed at improving skills of young people. The first is a school-improvement program ("Jornada Escolar Completa") that increases both the contact hours in targeted schools and their resources. Second, we examine the potential role of training schemes to offer a second chance to those individuals who are not able to complete their formal studies. We include young people's voices and experiences to shed light on the role of education and training in their work trajectories and of the support and barriers they face in accessing meaningful work.

The study is based on analysis of existing data spanning 15 years - on two cohorts of children as they have aged from birth to 15 years old and 8 to 22 years old. This is supplemented with matching information on schools - including their facilities, programmes and teacher qualifications. We will further complement the analysis by collecting new qualitative data (though semi-structured interviews and focus groups) for two subsamples of employed and unemployed youth and of those attending vocational and training institutions to examine how they evaluate the trade-offs between further education, training and work and how they conceptualise meaningful work.
The Peruvian case does illuminate the challenges faced by many LMICs that also have made important strides towards increased education, but where hard inequalities persist in terms of learning, acquisition of skills and youth access to meaningful jobs. The high-quality, timely and policy-relevant research that we aim to produce has thus the potential of shaping policy and recommendations in other LMIC countries, beyond Peru.

Planned Impact

Who will benefit?

At the national level, key stakeholders include the Ministry of Education (MoE); the Ministry of Labour (MoL); the National Council of Education (NCE) -in charge of formulating the National Education Project; the National Council of Labour (NCL) -in charge of generating consensus on policies related to job promotion, job training, social protection, and minimum wages; the National Council of Competitiveness (NCC) -in charge of formulating strategies to strength competitiveness across all sectors, it is especially relevant that NCC has a section focused on human capital; SUNEDU (launched in 2016) and EDUCATEC (to be launched), these are offices assigned to the Ministry of Education to oversee the quality of universities and academies / technical institutes (respectively) as established by law in the recent "Ley Universitaria" (2014) and "Ley de Institutos Superiores" (2016); SINEACE, which provides certificates of professional competences to technicians in different careers; the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion (MDSI); the Ministry of Health (MoH); the Ministry of Economics and Finance (MEF). On the demand side of the labour market, we will target CONFIEP -the main consortium of firms in Peru. Other key national stakeholders include donors, researchers, NGOs, youth advocates, youth leaders, and the media, who are already invested in Young Lives research and have strong relationships with GRADE.

At the international level, key stakeholders are multilateral and bilateral aid organizations and non-governmental organizations engaged in work on youth, education and more broadly speaking skills development in low and middle income countries: ILO, Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, CAF, UNICEF.

How will they benefit?

At the national level:

- The evidence about returns to skills and training, the existence of gender stereotypes in careers choices and inequalities of information about returns to education (workstream A) will be of interest for Ministries and Implementing Organisations attached to these ministries (MoE, MoL, NCE, NCL, NCC, SUNED, EDUCATEC and SINEACE). This will assist them to justify more policy attention on reducing gaps in skills formation, training and information with a gender and inclusive perspective;

- The evidence about structural issues in skills formation that arise during childhood and adolescence, and the evidence of what makes some secondary-level schools exceptional good (workstream B) will be an input for Ministries as above and also the Ministry of Health (MoH). MoE, NCE, NCC, MDSI and MoH to guide education and health policy formulation for children and adolescents;

- The evidence about the impact of Jornada Escolar Completa (large-scale pilot initiative to improve school quality at the secondary level) and the evidence about the heterogenous experiences of youth on training for the labour market (worksteam C) will be an input for MoE, MoL, NCE, NCL, NCC, SUNED, EDUCATEC and SINEACE for education and labour policy formulation.

- MEF is an important stakeholder across the entire project because it has a specific say in government budget decisions, whereas the inclusion of the Private sector (CONFIEP), donors, researchers, NGOs, youth advocates and youth leaders ensures that consensus is reached across all actors.

At the international level, we will use the evidence gathered to present our international stakeholders a case study relevant for middle-income countries that face similar challenges (sustained economic growth due to favourable external sector but education system and labour market under-developed, and highly unequal) and for low income countries that might eventually face similar problems.
 
Description Our research has produced insights on inequality of educational opportunity in Peru. We have produced five research papers, two of which are under review at international journals, as well as two policy briefs in English, and two in Spanish. We organised an international webinar on the importance of longitudinal data in April 2021, with a special session on Inequality of Education in Peru, as well as a special meeting at the Peruvian Ministry of Education.

Results from our two studies on secondary school quality in Peru demonstrate the potential for targeted policies at both the school and classroom levels to improve educational outcomes for young people. In one study we investigated characteristics of relatively high-performing schools, and in another we delved into a specific programme Peruvian school-day extension programme (JEC). The reasons for improved educational outcomes align closely in both studies, including more time studying and less time working, better pedagogical (teaching) resources, additional school staff, increased teacher training and increased IT resources.

Our new research on higher education shows that wealthier students are not only more likely to attend higher education but are also significantly more likely to attend the best-quality universities and get the highest-paid jobs. Female students are significantly underrepresented in specific degree subjects/majors leading to more highly paid jobs, which underpins a huge gender gap in earnings. Our findings also show that young people's expectations of earnings for completing both secondary and higher education are biased by both gender and wealth inequalities. Those from poorer backgrounds and young women are therefore more likely to make choices that reinforce existing structural inequalities.

The key objectives have mainly been met in terms of research outputs (5/6 planned research papers). The team was under a lot of stress due to COVID-19 (Peru was particularly hard hit), and also conducted phone surveys to monitor the situation. Engagement with Peruvian policymakers has happened but been less successful than planned, due to COVID but also high turnover of staff in Peruvian ministries, resulting in having to develop new relationships with each change of staff.
Exploitation Route The findings are highly relevant to Peruvian Education policymakers and Education NGOs working in Peru. We have a set of specific policy recommendations especially around how to improve secondary school quality.

More broadly, our findings are based on Peru, but would be very useful to research these same questions in other developing countries.
Sectors Education

Government

Democracy and Justice

 
Description 2020: Initial discussions of our findings on the effect of the school-day extension program were fed into Ministry of Education discussions. We believe that it did influence policymakers, however, the COVID-19 crisis has delayed any expansion of the program thus far. 2021: We have presented the work now several times to Ministry of Education, had meetings with high-ranking officials (e.g. Director of Evaluation, Director of Secondary Education, Quality of Higher Education Unit) about our work. We have also invited representatives from Ministry of Labor to our seminars, and three civil servants asked us to use the data for their own analysis.
Sector Education,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Economic

Policy & public services

 
Description Supplementary funding for Conference on Longitudinal Studies in Developed and Developing Countries.
Amount £60,000 (GBP)
Organisation Economic and Social Research Council 
Sector Public
Country United Kingdom
Start 02/2019 
End 11/2020
 
Description Learning from longitudinal studies in low- and middle-income countries: before, during and after Covid-19, an online conference 
Organisation University College London
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Organised this conference
Collaborator Contribution Co-organisers of the conference
Impact Webinar with hundreds of participants. Multidisciplinary - economics, education, anthropology, psychology.
Start Year 2020
 
Description Socio-emotional Skills Investigation 
Organisation University of Edinburgh
Country United Kingdom 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Funded research time on paper "https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13804/human-capital-development-new-evidence-on-the-production-of-socio-emotional-skills" by Favara, Porter and Sanchez.
Collaborator Contribution Mark Mitchell (PhD student, University of Edinburgh) worked with us on the production of the paper.
Impact https://www.iza.org/publications/dp/13804/human-capital-development-new-evidence-on-the-production-of-socio-emotional-skills Now published in Journal of Human Resources https://jhr.uwpress.org/content/early/2023/06/01/jhr.1120-11342R1
Start Year 2019
 
Description UConn Collaboration 
Organisation University of Connecticut
Country United States 
Sector Academic/University 
PI Contribution Porter, Favara and Sanchez have collaborated on a research paper about the impact of a school-day extension program. The paper is in draft form as of March 2021, has been presented in several places, and the working paper is now available. The paper has received a revise and resubmit at the Journal of Human Resources and we are planning to resubmit by April 2024.
Collaborator Contribution Jorge Aguero from UConn has provided data and analysis on the same research paper. He also wrote a blog post about the results (in spanish, below) in Peru's national newspaper La Comercio. Very sadly, Jorge passed away unexpectedly and too young in May 2023. We are committed to publishing the joint paper in his memory.
Impact https://www.lampadia.com/opiniones/jorge-m-agero/lo-que-la-casa-no-da-la-jec-si-presta/ https://elcomercio.pe/opinion/colaboradores/casa-da-jec-presta-jorge-m-agueero-noticia-644265-noticia/ [Blog post on initial results]
Start Year 2019
 
Description El Comercio article 
Form Of Engagement Activity A magazine, newsletter or online publication
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Article in a leading peruvian newspaper
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://elcomercio.pe/opinion/colaboradores/casa-da-jec-presta-jorge-m-agueero-noticia-644265
 
Description IDB Presentation 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation at Inter-American Development Bank in Washington DC, to policymakers. Discussion of the research project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Inception 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Workshop about the project to Peruvian policymakers (Goverment and NGOS) who heard about the project and also inputted their feedback and priority areas of interest.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019
 
Description Longitudinal workshop 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact hen you are cordially invited to Learning from longitudinal studies in low- and middle-income countries: before, during and after Covid-19, an online conference presented by Young Lives, CLOSER & Lancaster University Management School.

This four-day event took place from Tuesday 11th to Friday 14th of May 2021, with each day featuring a 90-minute seminar (2 pm-3.30 pm BST).

It was an excellent opportunity to dive into the challenges and opportunities of longitudinal research in LMICs, learning from researchers' diverse experiences across a variety of international longitudinal studies.

Each session featured a panel of experts who will address a variety of questions, including:

What is the role of longitudinal research in addressing Covid-19 and its aftermath?

How can longitudinal data be linked to other data sources or combined with multiple methods to enhance their value?

What have we learned in terms of the practical and ethical lessons for sustaining research cohorts over many years, and how has Covid-19 required us to adapt?

Daily seminar details:

COVID-19 and longitudinal research: opportunities and challenges

Tuesday 11 May, 2 pm-3.30 pm BST

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way that all research is conducted and presents many logistical and ethical challenges. However, longitudinal research has been well placed to respond to the crisis, and build on existing relationships with participants to assess impacts. This session showcased research findings from longitudinal studies that have responded to COVID-19 in developing countries.

Speakers included:
Sarah Baird (Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence)
Marta Favara (Young Lives)
Talip Kilik (World Bank)
Sarah Ssewanyana (Economic Policy Research Centre)

Session moderator: Catherine Porter (University of Lancaster)

Innovation in longitudinal research

Wednesday 12 May, 2 pm-3.30 pm BST

Understanding individuals' behaviours and designing effective policies requires access and management of different data sources. What are these data sources and how can we better link them into our research? This session will present examples of how longitudinal data can be linked to other data sources and the main challenges and opportunities of doing so.

Speakers included:
Yyannu Cruz (Inter-American Development Bank, IDB)
Paul Glewwe (University of Minnesota)
Claire Zanuso (French Development Agency, AFD)
Juan León (GRADE)

Session Moderator: Rafael Novella (UCL, CLOSER)

Doing and Adapting Longitudinal Research: What have we learned?

Thursday 13 May, 2pm-3.30pm BST
This session aimed to stimulate discussion on the methodological, ethical and practical challenges encountered in the conduct of longitudinal research in LMICs. It invited speakers from a variety of studies to reflect on their experiences of conducting longitudinal research, how they have adapted due to the pandemic, and what the future of longitudinal research in LMICs might look like.

Speakers included:
Jo Boyden (Young Lives)
Rebecca Hardy (UCL, CLOSER)
Caroline Moreau (Johns Hopkins University, Global Early Adolescent Study)
Virginia Morrow (Young Lives)
Sabina Faiz Rashid (Brac University, Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence)
Alan Sánchez (GRADE, Young Lives)

Session Moderator: Gina Crivello (Young Lives)

Special session: Longitudinal evidence on skills inequality in Peru

Friday 14 May, 2pm-4pm BST / 10am-12pm PST (note 2-hour session)

This session showcases work from the ESRC-funded project, Inequality in skills in Peru. The presentations will feature studies on the impact of recently implemented secondary and higher education policies in Peru. The session will focus particularly on policy implications and invite participation from researchers and policymakers.

Speakers include:
Jorge Agüero (University of Connecticut)
Alan Sànchez (GRADE)
Session Moderator: Santiago Cueto (GRADE).
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
 
Description Meeting with Minedu 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Presentation with MINEDU, with the presence of the Director of Secondary Education, the Director of the Evaluation Unit, and representatives of JEC. Presented the results in about 35-40 minutes and then spent another 30 minutes answering their questions.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2020
 
Description Minedu 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Several presentations to the Ministry of Education in Peru, including preliminary results from school-day extension program research. The relationship has allowed us to receive confidential information that has given us the ability to investigate channels of impact (investments in schools).

A challenge has been the high turnover of personnel in the ministry.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2019,2020
 
Description NBER meeting 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Jorge Aguero presented at the NBER education workshop which is a mix of academic and practitioners
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.nber.org/conferences/education-program-meeting-fall-2021
 
Description Video: Young Lives Field Co-ordinator Sofia Madrid on 20 years in the role (English sub-titles) 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach International
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact This video was an edited version of a longer interview conducted by Young Lives' Qualitative Lead Researcher in Peru, Vanessa Rojas with the team's long-standing Field Co-ordinator Sofia Madrid. Sofia reflects on her 20 year tenure in the role, spanning the length of the study, and shares lessons learnt. It was part of the methodological lessons learned as a follow up to the webinar.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2021
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Rq1o9JE5nE