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The impact of a vocational education program for childcare providers on children's well-being

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  • Bernal, Raquel

Abstract

The early childhood community-based program Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar serves 800,000 low-income children under the age of 5 in Colombia. Earlier studies have identified care providers (madres comunitarias) as having, on average, low education levels and not being appropriately trained for the provision of childcare services. In 2007, a vocational education program was introduced which offers a degree in child development and care for childcare providers. In this paper we assess the effects of this program on the quality of care provided in the relevant nurseries and on the nutritional and health status, as well as cognitive and socio-emotional development of beneficiary children in Bogotá. This evaluation takes advantage of the gradual geographic expansion of the program in order to estimate treatment effects. Results indicate that the quality of care has significantly increased in these family-based nurseries and that the program has thus had a positive and significant effect on the health, cognitive and socio-emotional development of beneficiary children, especially those younger than 3 years of age.

Suggested Citation

  • Bernal, Raquel, 2015. "The impact of a vocational education program for childcare providers on children's well-being," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 165-183.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:48:y:2015:i:c:p:165-183
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2015.07.003
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    7. Bernal, Raquel & Fernández, Camila, 2013. "Subsidized childcare and child development in Colombia: Effects of Hogares Comunitarios de Bienestar as a function of timing and length of exposure," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 241-249.
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    Cited by:

    1. Moussa P. Blimpo & Pedro Carneiro & Pamela Jervis & Todd Pugatch, 2022. "Improving Access and Quality in Early Childhood Development Programs: Experimental Evidence from the Gambia," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 70(4), pages 1479-1529.
    2. Orazio Attanasio & Helen Baker-Henningham & Raquel Bernal & Costas Meghir & Diana Pineda & Marta Rubio-Codina, 2022. "Early Stimulation and Nutrition: The Impacts of a Scalable Intervention," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 20(4), pages 1395-1432.
    3. Nores, Milagros & Bernal, Raquel & Barnett, W. Steven, 2019. "Center-based care for infants and toddlers: The aeioTU randomized trial," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 30-43.
    4. Milagros Nores & Camila Fernandez, "undated". "Building Capacity in Health and Education Systems to Deliver Interventions that Strengthen Early Child Development," Mathematica Policy Research Reports bc89241b99d142d38ccd496bd, Mathematica Policy Research.
    5. Bernal, Raquel & Ramírez, Sara María, 2019. "Improving the quality of early childhood care at scale: The effects of “From Zero to Forever”," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 91-105.
    6. M. Caridad Araujo & Marta Dormal & Norbert Schady, 2019. "Childcare Quality and Child Development," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 54(3), pages 656-682.
    7. Laura Cepeda-Emiliani & Cindy Benedetti-Henao, 2019. "Nutrición y primera infancia para la inclusión y la transformación social," Chapters, in: Jaime Bonet & Diana Ricciuli-Marin (ed.), Casa Grande Caribe, chapter 2, pages 51-94, Banco de la Republica de Colombia.
    8. Raquel Bernal & Sara María Ramírez, 2018. "Improving childcare quality at scale: the effects of “From Zero to Forever”," Documentos CEDE 16600, Universidad de los Andes, Facultad de Economía, CEDE.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Economic impact; Early childhood; Vocational education;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J13 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth
    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General
    • H43 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods - - - Project Evaluation; Social Discount Rate

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