This is the third article in the first volume in a new series of briefs Mapping Community Colleges Around the World: Comparative Perspectives and Collaborative Pathways presented by ACCT and STAR Scholars Network. Click here to read the full brief of the first volume, Global Snapshots: Models, Missions, and Challenges, which profiles institutions in Colombia, Croatia, Malawi, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea, Syria, and the United States.
With a population of over 52 million, Colombia is South America’s second most populous (and largest Spanish-speaking) country and boasts a literacy rate of 95% (Indexmundi, 2021). To increase the employability and adaptability of the citizenry in a rapidly changing world, current president Gustavo Petro, upon his election in 2022, declared the advent of a higher education revolution in Colombia buttressed by a government support system that would add as many as 500,000 new students to the higher education rolls (Amat, 2022). A key component of Colombia’s higher education system—and an area of focus for this ambitious enrollment goal—is the technical education sector, the equivalent of community college education in the United States and other parts of the world.
Institutions and Credentials
The primary technical education providers in Colombia are the institutos tecnicos, or technical institutes, defined by Carol, Reyes and Trines (2020) as “postsecondary institutions that offer applied academic programs below the bachelor’s degree level. Programs usually last two, two and a half, or three years. Graduates obtain a formal academic title in a specific discipline…Some of these programs articulate with programs at [the bachelor’s degree level].” In 2018, there were 48 technological institutions, 37 of them private.
In addition to the stand-alone institutes, many universities have technical degree pathways as part of their offerings. A program of the Federal Government, SENA (National Learning Service), also offers postsecondary technical professional training, some administered through universities and some as stand-alone programs.
The technical institutes and other providers offer two primary credentials:
• The Técnico Profesional (technical professional) degree pathway: Applied study, similar to many certificate programs at U.S. community colleges. For example, a student pursuing qualification as a Técnico Profesional en Diseño Textil (professional technician in textile design) would generally receive applied training in the production of textiles.
• The Tecnólogo (technologist): A more academic qualification than the technical professional degree, which is similar to the Associate’s degree in the U.S., prepares students for mid-level technician and managerial positions in fields such as business administration, engineering, or information technology. To ensure competency, graduating students are required to take the TyT (Tecnico y Tecnologo) test, which includes subject-specific assessments of applied learning and skills needed for employment. (Carol et al., 2020).
“Respected and Growing”
In an interview, Dr. Francisco Cardona, a former vice minister in the higher education area of Colombia’s Ministry of Education and current head of the Colegio Americano in Bogota, stated that “the technical professional and technologist degrees are respected degrees and are growing.” Expansion of the technical education sector reflects an overall trend of increasing higher education enrollment in recent years, even prior to the current president’s aggressive goals; data from the Colombian government think tank, Observatorio Laboral para la Education (OLE), indicate that the number of postsecondary graduates in Colombia grew from 513,104 in 2019 to 535,963 in 2022 (with a significant dip in between in 2020 due to pandemic related disruptions).
While bachelor’s and master’s degree attainment still outpaces technical professional degree and technologist degree attainment by a wide margin, as indicated in the chart below, the greatest increase in higher education graduates between 2021 and 2022 in Colombia was in the technical professional area, which saw a 22.5% increase during that time period. In terms of fields of study, Dr. Cardona indicated that the most in-demand programs include database management, information systems support, industrial maintenance support, and telecommunications installation technology, similar to some of the in-demand pathways in the United States and other countries.
Labor Market Alignment
A key component of the technical education value proposition in Colombia, like elsewhere in the world, is the engagement of the sector with employers and industry to ensure that graduates are well prepared to meet labor market needs. Experiential learning features prominently in technical programs; Dr. Cardona noted, “It is common for professional technical and technologist students to engage in internships as part of their educational journey, and in some cases, these experiences are required for degree completion.” Indeed, Asleth Ortega, the Dean of the Engineering Faculty at the Corporacion Universitaria Reformada (CUR) in Barranquilla noted that his professional technical and technologist students regularly work as interns during their course of study. For example, several industrial engineering technology students are interning at Triple AA Corp., a municipal water provider in the city of Barranquilla. Two biomedical engineering technology students are interning at biomedical research organizations, and a systems engineering technology student is working at Sempertex, an 87-year-old world-leading balloon-making company.
In regard to postgraduate employment, Ortega indicated that technical professional education attainment carries significant weight for employers and demonstrates competencies that are attractive in the labor market. Overall, Colombia wrestles with a persistently high unemployment rate, which, as of October 2024, stood at 9.2% (Trading Economics, 2024). While postgraduation employment rates vary by field, data indicate that graduates of technical education programs fare relatively well—particularly in light of the broader national employment picture—suggesting that the internships and industry-aligned curricula available in such programs provide an advantage. Referencing OLE data, Cardona noted, “98.2% of technical professionals in database analysis and design find employment soon after graduation, as do 89.2% of those in information systems support, 96.2% in industrial maintenance technology, and 93.8% in telecommunication network installation technologies.” All of these pay 2 to 2.5 times the minimum wage, whereas a person without a degree would typically earn the minimum wage.
Exchanges
Dean Ortega weighed in on the importance of exchanges with institutions outside Colombia. “Exchanges of students and professors in the higher education arena are very important and allow us to compare and try out new techniques, methods and technologies among our institutions.” An area of particular need for many Colombian institutions is better English language instruction, as students in many fields require English language competency for successful completion of their training, and strong English skills are highly valued by many employers.
As a case example, a visit by Margarita Barraza, Dean of Economic Sciences at the CUR, to two community colleges in Ohio during the summer of 2024 revealed both opportunities and challenges for establishing partnerships between Colombian institutions and U.S. community colleges. Both the U.S. institutions she visited were eager to explore opportunities for Colombian students and for their own students at the Colombian institution. Because of improvements in online delivery in both contexts, course-level collaborations that are completely online—or largely online with a short-duration travel component—could be a promising starting point for introducing a cross-cultural educational experience that still takes into account the work-school-life situations of many of the students in each context. This is particularly important today, as U.S. visa processing for Colombians in all categories can take up to two years. Language differences (in this case English and Spanish) potentially pose some level of challenge, but again, new technologies are now available to bridge such gaps. While disparities in cost could also potentially be problematic, at first glance, it was found that in-state tuition levels at the community colleges included in this visit were in line with the tuition rates for Colombian students at their home institution. Depending upon legal limitations within a given state or community college district, cost may well not be a prohibitive barrier.
Reflecting the broader need for English language instruction in Colombia noted previously, opportunities in this area are a particular priority for CUR’s global partnerships. The willingness of the U.S. institution to offer predominantly online instruction was considered important. As was found at one of the U.S. institutions visited, this request does not always meet the delivery approach available, as some English language programs do not offer an all or mostly online course of study. Overall, however, establishing partnerships between U.S. colleges and their Colombian counterparts centered on high-quality online English language study could allow institutions in both countries to expand their English course offerings and lay the groundwork for additional activities such as virtual exchanges and even subsequent in-person exchanges.
Summary and Future Opportunities
Colombia has a robust technical professional higher education system. While the employment landscape in Colombia is more daunting than in the U.S., evidence suggests that students graduating from these programs are finding success. While language barriers and travel requirements between the U.S. and Colombia present challenges, student and faculty collaborations and exchanges between and among Colombian and U.S. institutions can benefit systems in both countries.
Will Colombia achieve President Petro’s goal of increasing postsecondary student enrollment by 500,000? In 2022, Education Minister Gaviria alluded to an “all hands on deck” approach, including capacity expansion in both private and public universities and the expansion of lending for student tuition (Amat, 2022). More recently, the President and new Minister of Education, Jose Daniel Rojas Medellin, announced a sweeping change to the higher education statute to provide more robust financing to public universities and technical and technological institutions of higher education. The President declared that this would “guarantee sustainable and adequate resources to public [higher education institutions]” for infrastructure improvement and to support increased enrollment (Largo, 2025). Exchanges such as those contemplated herein could also be one of the mechanisms to reach the country’s enrollment goal.
References
Amat, Y. (2022) Haremos una revolucion en la educacion superior, Alejandro Gaviria El Tiempo, (1) 11.
Carol, L., Reyes, A., and Trines, S. (2020) Education System Profiles: Education in Colombia. World Education News + Reviews, retrieved from https://wenr.wes.org/2020/06/education-in-colombia-2
IndexMundi. (2021) Retrieved from https://www.indexmundi.com/colombia/literacy.html. Largo, J.M. (2025) Gobierno Petro propuso reforma histórica para garantizar el sistema de financiamiento de las universidades públicas. Infobae. Retrieved from https://www.infobae.com/colombia/2025/02/11/gobiernopetro-propuso-reforma-historica-para-garantizar-el-sistema-de-financiamiento-de-las-universidades-publicas/
Observatorio Laboral para la Educacion. (2024) Retrieved from: https://ole.mineducacion.gov.co/portal
Trading Economics. (2024) Columbia Unemployment Rate. Retrieved from https://tradingeconomics.com/ Colombia/unemployment-rate.
About the Author
Dr. Tom Milligan is an entrepreneur, community leader and higher education leader based in Sidney, Ohio. He is president, founder and co-owner of Western Ohio Cut Stone, a producer of natural stone products for the construction and landscape sectors. In addition to being a trustee at two higher education institutions, his volunteer community endeavors include support in the renovation of the town’s historic theater, leadership in the community’s healthcare system, and research on labor shortage and healthy immigrant workforce strategies. Email: drtpm22@gmail.com
Main Photo by Flavia Carpio on Unsplash
