Our first school visit started at the top: higher education. Our first morning in Colombia, the newly formed posse of U.S. teachers loaded up a charter bus and were welcomed to UNITEC, which is a post-secondary educational institution. I'll be honest — my preconception was that I might be bored, or feel doubly out of place (different country AND different age group of students). Well, as it turns out, this visit had a lot to do with understanding differences in our systems of education, as well as Colombian culture. It's also one of the best professional "stretches" of this program for me so far — exploring the connections between primary grades and other age groups. In the U.S. we are very separated by age level, but here that's not necessarily the case. It's already helped me to expand my thinking about the teaching profession to be connecting with educators, both U.S. and Colombian, in other "categories."
This visit proved a helpful introduction to the education system as a whole here in Colombia. Of the roughly 300 higher education institutions in the country, about 70 are universities, which have a strong emphasis on academic research. All the rest are technical programs offering preparation for specific careers. Colombia has a smaller percentage of the population with post-secondary education than does the United States, but that number is growing quickly, according to the OECD.
UNITEC fits into a niche between universities and technical schools. It's called a "Corporación Universitaria." UNITEC offers another education option for those who can't access university. The public universities are extremely competitive, so it's rare to gain entry, and the private ones are very expensive. UNITEC offers more than 30 undergrad, graduate, post-grad, and continuing education programs, as well as some research opportunities. Its 3,700 students are divided into four schools: School of Arts and Communications, School of Economics and Administrative Sciences, School of Engineering, and School of Social, Legal, and Human Sciences. UNITEC has the only Sommelier Studies program in Colombia. Some other important fields are Film and Television (a department that has sent submissions to Cannes five years in a row), Graphic Design, and Finance and International Business. Regardless of the program of study, English, leadership, and entrepreneurship are embedded into the curriculum, making UNITEC grads very competitive in the workforce.
We learned that UNITEC students work during the day, often at internships in their fields, and take their classes mostly at night. There's a lot of interest in the hospitality industry, but jobs and salaries are not always there, and English proficiency is often the biggest barrier to obtaining a hospitality job. Many see the arts as an important opportunity, as part of a growing Orange (or Creative) Economy.
We were brought to the Film and Television studios, where students could be seen working together to develop their projects. The halls were lined with cinema-style movie cutouts. Inside a recording room covered in soundproof foam, we were treated to a screening of one of the program's film shorts: No Hay Tiempo Para Llorar, or "There's No Time to Cry."
This film was an immersive introduction to violent conflict in Colombia. It tells the story of a rural community being threatened by a multinational company, with the support of local police and media, over its refusals to convert its farms to palm oil. The film professor explained that after 5 decades of war; 45,000 people dead; and 4 years since the beginning of the peace process; it's now safe to share stories of what has happened. Foreign corporate intimidation is somewhat less now, but its impacts are deeply felt. Colombia has the most internally displaced people in the world, recently surpassing Syria. In some areas, violence or the threat of it does continue. This Guardian article sheds some light on the dynamics of land rights and violence. According to Conciliation Resources, "Colombia is currently experimenting with the most significant peace process in the world, both in terms of the conflict duration as well as the extent of violence suffered by the population." Many Colombians we heard from so far have spoken passionately about the country's trajectory towards peace.