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Colombia and Latin America’s steady economic growth seen in the past year has been put in a new, less favourable, light by November´s The Hays Global Skills Index.

This index produced by a leading global recruiter, Hays and Oxford Economics, showed that despite Latin America’s expansion, the limited amount of professionals in the region poses a challenge for the future development of certain markets, offering a reason for the high unemployment rate.

Though the Hays Global Index does not fully explain the factors behind Colombia’s official 9.9% unemployment rate,  it does shed light on areas that could improve the country´s economic development.

The study claims the most sought after professions are those in the areas of natural resources, engineering, life sciences, retail trade, and finance, with the academics indicating a need for Colombia to refocus its education system to promote learning in these areas.

President Santos professes to have placed education at the heart of his government´s programme, citing it as a key driver of upward mobility, helping to combating inequality, and secure the Prosperity for All mantra of his administration.

The resources for financing the growing demand for tertiary education are still in question, and the disparity between the rhetoric and the reality is perhaps best represented by the current lobbying of the Federación Nacional de Representantes Estudiantiles de Educación Superior (Fenares), the National Federation of Higher Education Student Representative, in order to negotiate a bigger dispensable budget for public higher education.

The challenge for the government is not only to reassess the educational system to better prepare students for these areas of study, but also how it can ensure tertiary education is available to students of all socioeconomic levels.

Help has come in the form of a $46 million USD Inter-American Development Bank loan which Colombia’s Education Ministry is using to reduce territorial inequities, and to provide the necessary tools for educational institutions to create learning environments that strengthen socio-emotional qualities.

The 2008 World Economic Forum on Latin America identified the “need to construct values and skills-driven education systems as the top priority for Latin America to achieve sustainable development”; this remains very much a work in progress.

A decade long study of Colombian education by the World Bank found that a potential solution to the limited availability of the educational system would be to increase loan availability to students through a system similar to that of Sallie Mae in the United States.

For Colombia, the road to continual economic growth, means creating the proper incentives for both businesses and students to fill the skills gap. The country must also work to prevent pull the brake on the brain drain caused by reduced employment opportunities, and low remuneration.

The underlying reasons for Colombia´s high unemployment level requires exploration and long-term solutions: the country´s hiring process is often characterized by discriminatory practices, linked directly to the inequality inherent in both the educational system and the geographically differing rates of economic development.

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