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Guatemala, despite ongoing moderate growth and political and macroeconomic stability over the last decade, has been unable to overcome some of the economic and social challenges that have been troubling the country for the past 30 years. Young people especially lack access to quality education or jobs. Furthermore, the quality and relevance of training and education rarely corresponds to private sector requirements. This lack of suitable training hinders access to employment and limits workforce mobility on an individual level – and ultimately deters companies from increasing their competitiveness and access to new markets.
The project tackles this disconnect by working towards improved, relevant training processes, allowing young employed and unemployed women and men to increase and strengthen their skills in order to either find a new job, obtain a promotion and/or increase their income. This will be achieved through supporting sector specific, quality, and relevant vocational training pilot models driven by the private sector, which are designed and implemented in partnership with vocational education institutions and government authorities.
The project works in two complementary areas of intervention. On the one hand, Swisscontact supports the development and improvement of upskilling and reskilling programs – both inside and outside the private sector companies. On the other hand, Swisscontact supports the private sector companies and associations to play the leading role in the discussion around the design of vocational education in their sectors in Guatemala.
Close coordination not only between the companies of the specific sectors, but also with private and public training institutes, universities and governmental entities is crucial to achieve the alignment between training offer and demand. Therefore, the project established intersectoral working groups/roundtables to allow for a regular dialogue. These roundtables also serve to agree on common norms and standards for the sector.
Lastly, the project will also support the roundtables to communicate and promote their coordination work, the agreements they achieve and the benefits for the sector overall.
The design and implementation of relevant continuous vocational education processes is improved and trainings become recognized and certified by the private sector, allowing employed and unemployed young men and women to increase their income and labour market mobility.
Phase II of the project is financed by the Gebauer Foundation, among other donor. The project is part of the Swisscontact Development Programme, which is co-financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA.