Calidad en la educación para el trabajo. Algunas reflexiones.

Abstract

In Chile, the challenge of development requires encouraging education for the labor market, and it also calls for modifying the current relationship between university and technological degrees, so as to overcome the gap opened up by technology between the developed world and the developing world. At the same time, teaching the virtues of work and instilling need for collective well-being will need to be addressed as a crucial requirement for building our common future in professional and productive terms. Total quality in education is one of the central objectives. Nevertheless, it also requires making the management of education centers as effective as possible by introducing the use of assessment tools such as the Baldridge Award and other standards, criteria and methods that are applied in the United States and Europe. This will enable us to adapt to the current times which are marked by a dynamics of change. The new scenarios created by the global economy —that have accelerated developments in knowledge to unprecedented proportions— as well as fast changes in concepts such as output, services, quality, users, labor force, company structures, information or risk, etcetera, require a coordinated effort between the business sector, the State, the education sector and social leaders, to achieve total quality in education as the sole guarantee for achieving efficiency in this new era.