Abstract

With human capital as its theoretical foundation, vocational education and training (VET) in Chile has been consistently positioned at the bottom of a well-established hierarchy in higher education. However, recent policies suggest a theoretical turn to rights-based education, opening a window of opportunity to problematize the hierarchical nature of Chile’s higher education system. This chapter explores the history of higher education policies in Chile through three different policy frameworks (human capital, right-based education and the capabilities approach) and two ideal system typologies (vertical and parallel). It argues that recent reforms suggest a more complex understanding of VET that supports social justice, although a more profound debate is needed to fully challenge human capital orthodoxy.