We have observed an unbalanced view of the importance of a university education in these countries. In what way? Parents are mostly concerned about have children who are “titled” with a degree which will promote the families’ social standing. So they pay to have their children become doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc. However, most of these fields are flooded and a grad cannot find work.

The main newspaper in Cochabamba, Bolivia, wrote a front-page article a few years ago lamenting this situation. Only 1 out of 10 grads that year would find work in their fields. The rest would work in other fields, many of them driving taxis for a living.

The newspaper stressed that attention should be turned to educating young people on entrepreneurship and creating their own jobs ir training in other technical areas instead of relying on getting jobs which just don’t exist for those with a college degree.

We find this to be the situation in all the countries where we have lived.