This analysis of costs and benefits of vocational and technical education (VTE) in Peru partly substantiates the conclusion of growing literature suggesting that VTE in developing countries fails to offer a return commensurate with its cost. The costs of academic and VTE streams in Peru are similar and the monetary returns to, and occupational profiles of, graduates of the two streams are almost identical. These similarities are most likely to occur because VTE institutions in Peru are funded at the same level as academic institutions; they cannot afford the inputs that make VTE genuinely technical. Therefore, programs and curricula in the two streams are substantially alike, and students get little “hands-on” technical experience in school.