The destination and early career performance of secondary school graduates in Colombia : findings from the 1978 cohort

This paper reports the results of an evaluation of Bank-assisted diversified secondary schools (INEM) in Colombia offering prevocational subjects alongside the traditional academic curriculum. The evaluation is based on a retrospective follow-up of nearly 1,800 graduates of target and control schools three years after leaving school. The central finding is that the new schools have not generated further training or employment patterns that are different from the control schools. In particular, INEM graduates are not more likely to enter employment immediately upon graduation and do not obtain higher earnings in the labor market than traditional graduates. According to this inital evaluation, there is virtually no difference in the social rate of return on the resources invested in the two types of schools.