Salary and employability differences between graduates of the different types of Technical Professional Higher Education Institutions in Chile

Abstract

As a result of the liberal policies implemented in Chile at the dawn of the eighties, the higher education system resulted in a structure of titles and degrees where different types of higher education institutions (universities, Professional Institutes and Technical Training Centers) offer higher-level technical-professional careers generating a wide heterogeneity both in careers and in their quality. Due to the above, policies were introduced for quality assurance in higher education, such as institutional accreditation, to promote improvements in dimensions such as institutional management and undergraduate teaching. In this sense, the present study sought to estimate the salary and employability differences between individuals graduated from the different Higher Technical Professional Education institutions in the country and who studied and graduated under the institutional accreditation policy. The results show that, although there are differences between the graduates of the distinct types of institutions, when considering only those individuals who studied and graduated under the accreditation policy, these differences were reduced or changed in favor of the graduates of Professional Institutes and Technical Training Centers over the graduates of technical careers studied at universities.