Youth Roundtable - Help frame the debate, share your experiences!

Julito Aligaen Aug 25, 2010

1. Our technical-vocation for post-primary its now on the second year of implementation, the purpose is to balance the need of the students, its interdisciplinary approach of learning, wherein the learning process anchored what the community needs. We lower down Vocational Technical for post-secondary to Technical Vocational for post-primary. But this is in formal type of education, if non formal education will be the most appropriate we are moving more on livelihoods, (Learning while Earning). Just a matter of designing learning system what is badly needed by the community. But then we can always make a policy for ladderize education system, from non formal to formal education depending on the need.

2. As of this time we have government funding for the formal education. but for non-formal education which is focusing on life skills development (Learning while Earning) we are funded by local government and NGOs.

Annetkurui Aug 26, 2010

. Our Vocational skill training for young women in Uganda started last year 2009,so far we have had a very interesting experience in regards to the youth and education. Every end of the semester you have to review your syllabus to see if its meeting their needs or not, from our experience, it has captured the most vulnerable youth who felt their education ended.
Our target are the young women living in the slums with children or no children, they all need education.

One major thing we have noted with the young people who missed their normal education is from a very psychological point of view and we need to consider this when trying to encourage youth into education.

2.We have no much funding but we get our funding from individuals and hosting events.

Youth gets very desperate when they reach a point of acquiring something and they do know or see where to get that help from, we do think that there should be a provision desk for the youth to be heard for and guided through.

Julito Aligaen Aug 26, 2010

No. 3. The best activities we have done I think is the partnership with some business sectors, Like for example we have neighbors doing business in livestock and tropical fruits production, we establish linkage with these sector and instead of holding the students in the school (this is referring to non formal education) we came up a plan to sent the students (OSY). to work in the sector as on the job training (OJT). After the several months we are going to evaluate the performance in terms of work attitude, learning capability and anything that may involve their holistic social development. We have ask the local government to finance the 50% cost of the initial input for livestock production with the private sector. The proponents will pay it back not in terms of cash but in terms of excretes from the animals (organic matter from animal waste). The fruit producers need organic fertilizers, now instead it will be secured outside, the supply now is just being produced by the local residents. The non formal education continues, and test for equivalency will be provided to give them a chance to be promoted to higher learning if it is possible, if not then they are already equipped to earn for a living.

Omar Abdikarim Aug 27, 2010

1. we offer broad based life skill trainings for the refugee youth as funding activities for youth in emergecies tend to be very expensive with very few donors to fund youth programmes. we also offer hand craft courses and tailoring courses particularly for girls. the programmes are not meant for livelihoods but as a gateway to community participation and development.

2. we get meager funding from our agency(SC US Ethiopia Country office.)

Rama Kondapalli Aug 28, 2010

While there are many appreciable efforts towards Vocational Education Training , it has most often been evolving as a separate stream for progression post schooling . Should we not really think of Vocationalising our basic education, so that every child immaterial of their potential for progression to higher education has skills developed early may say starting Grade 5 , so that by the time they reach grade 10 and due to economic reasons or limited access and/or aptitude to progress in education have an option for taking up specific vocation ? This appart from encouraging and tapping the talents of children early , would be a sustainable model in preparing the youth for difficult situations at times when there are increasing numbers of countries suffering from conflicts and/or emergencies . This would help communities recovering from conflicts , disasters and displaced communities not only towards quicker , economical stability and resettlements but also keep the youth engaged and contribute to rebulding the society.

Julito Aligaen Aug 28, 2010

Actually, I really agree with that idea Rama, that’s why I came up with the theory of “Learning While Earning and Earning while Learning” without labelling as such as primary or secondary as long as he/she capable of doing things like developing life skills for survival. My experience under a not so severe condition they are still bound to the academic string. That’s why this practice is not so acceptable, but in emergencies condition this will really work. I don’t have ample experience under severe condition. But I am sure what we need now is “Survival Learning System”.

Philip F. Davis Aug 28, 2010

1. In Liberia, vocational training programs are offered at both public and private institutions .Quality Life skills training programs offered at private institutes are very costly and young people on the average are really in need of such opportunity. Public institutes are unable to incorporate vast majority of these young people needing life training skills. Hence; Government through its Fiscal Subsidy Scheme, could subsidize on a long term basis non formal education at private institutions which to some extend will aid in closing the gap of the desperately in need youths for such opportunity. Moreover; it has been observed that the little who have been absorbed to acquire these life training skills, upon completion can’t find jobs. If they do find one, they cannot be compensated in terms of wages based on their merit and worth. So as a result many young persons’ learned multiple life training skills just to make a living. For instance, say you are a carpenter and your monthly wage can’t meet up your needs, alternatively you need to acquire skills in masonry that could help you cope with your needs.

2. The Government of Liberia through her fiscal budget and other initiatives is funding public vocational training programs for example: MVTC located in Monrovia and other NGOs are helping but funding is on a short term basis.

3. One good practice that is to be worked on by the Ministry of Youth and Sport, is recreational activities like soccer tournament as a unifying force of peace building where young people who really likes and as primary actors in such activities, should have some basic educational background before participating in any tournament at national, and county levels. The reason is, having observed that many young persons who are athlete have opportunities to scholarships for education but deliberately refusing to utilize them. Therefore; this will be used as a hallmark of taking education to them.

Rama Kondapalli Aug 29, 2010

Similar to what Julito Aligaen has mentioned on Livelihoods there are programmes in Srilanka, India and Africa supported by the Commonwealth of Learning for the farming communities. This has been taken up by the Colmbo University as an extension activity were their research centre supports training of young farmers in tissue culture of Banana crop . This has been a great sucess and many youth have taken up this as they continue to pursue their studies and help the family in income generation and also with their core farming activity. The larger impact of this has been retention of youth in the rural areas and increased interest in traditional vocations like farming and entreprenurial skills in terms of green hous cultivation, tissue culture etc. Now the issue is recognising these prior learning skills for the youth to progress in academics if they desire at various stages of their life. This is one of the ways to overcome the challenges raised by Philip F. Davis i.e. raise the status of vocational training which of late is not attracting many youth as they end up as a labour force in unorganised sectors earning meager wages by recognising prior learning and with some additional skills training equating it to certain higher level of academic qualifications and skills improving their scope of employability at higher levels.

Sarah Sladen Aug 30, 2010

1. Below are some examples of post-primary and non-formal education approaches being used to build the livelihood skills of young people implemented by the Educational Quality Improvement Program 3 (EQUIP3), and by the Education Development Center, Inc (EDC) (the lead implementing agency for EQUIP3):

EQUIP3: Haitian Out-of-School Youth Livelihood Initiative (IDEJEN): IDEJEN was launched in 2003 to provide education and job training for youth ages 15-24 with little to no formal education. IDEJEN provides program participants nonformal basic education and vocational training, followed by livelihood accompaniment via assistance in returning to formal education and/or a second level of technical training, finding internships or jobs, and/or participating in entrepreneurship training and launching small businesses. A PEPFAR-funded component, funded from 2008-2010, allowed IDEJEN to engage youth graduates as HIV/AIDS peer educators conducting sexual educational outreach activities in IDEJEN training centers and throughout their communities. 

From its inception in 2003, IDEJEN has reached over 13,000 youth and works across 8 out of Haiti’s 10 geographical departments. In addition to working directly with youth, IDEJEN has provided capacity building and technical support to more than 200 local, community-based organizations and government ministries and has assisted in the development of the National Youth Policy and a Policy on Nonformal Basic Education. IDEJEN has also participated in disaster relief following both the 2008 hurricanes and the 2010 earthquake, providing immediate response to the project’s youth and developing ways for youth to engage in relief and reconstruction efforts, simultaneously practicing learned skills, earning and income, and serving their communities. To Learn more, visit: http://www.equip123.net/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=628&z=123

EQUIP3: Preparing Youth for Work (PAS: Prepara Ami Ba Servisu) - East Timor: Launched 2008, this workforce preparation program assists minimally educated youth (ages 16-30) from East Timor’s most rural areas in gaining the necessary skills and expertise needed to find job opportunities and promising futures. Specifically, these rural men and women will benefit from the program’s 12-month combination of off-the-job classroom instruction, on-the-job training, and livelihood accompaniment. As part of this training, participants will have the opportunity to gain real work experience while applying new-found skills gained through formal instruction. To learn more, visit: http://www.equip123.net/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=647&z=123

EQUIP3: Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth) - Garissa, Kenya: Designed to respond to Garissan youth’s needs and assets, the Garissa Youth Project (G-Youth Project) aims to empower youth to make sound career and life decisions as they transition from high-school to the next phase of their lives. The project builds the capacity of local institutions and networks to sustain the much-needed services that G-Youth provides. Specifically, the G-Youth Project offers youth a series of inter-connected interventions to: build skills, facilitate appropriate career choices, provide employment and/or income generating information, bridge technical and university education opportunities and provide fun and safe spaces. The G-Youth Project is implemented by Education Development Center (EDC) in partnership with local Garissa-based NGOs, higher education institutions, private sector companies and members of civil society. To learn more, visit: http://www.equip123.net/webarticles/anmviewer.asp?a=636&z=123

EQUIP3: Shaqodoon Somalia: Somali Youth Livelihood Program (SYLP): SYLP, known locally as Shaqodoon, provides Somali youth with a greater opportunity to access training, internships, work and self-employment opportunities.  These opportunities are intended to productively engage youth and add to the stability and development of the region. Somali staff, assisted by international experts, work with employers to better understand the skills that they need, assist education and training providers to develop programs that are more focused on meeting labor market demand, and build upon existing technical training programs through direct financial support. The program is currently in Somaliland and is expanding in late 2009 to Puntland and South Central Somalia. The project aims to reach 8,000 youth over a 3-year period. To learn more, visit: http://www.equip123.net/webarticles//anmviewer.asp?a=665&z=123

EDC IDD: Core Education Skills for Liberian Youth (CESLY): Core Education Skills for Liberian Youth (CESLY) is a two-year project that extends and expands the successes of USAID/Liberia’s Accelerated Learning Program PLUS for Liberian youth.  The program targets children and youth, ages 10 – 35, in six counties of Liberia: Grand Gedeh, Maryland, Nimba, Lofa, Bong, and Montserrado. CESLY helps Liberian young people develop the skills and attitudes necessary to progress in the conventional academic system, progress with formal and non-formal livelihood training programs, find jobs, or create their own employment, as well maintain healthy lifestyles and participate in their communities.  Over the course of the two-year project, the CESLY team will increase access to education among Liberian youth, enhance the overall quality of teaching, and collaborate with government and community organizations toward the long-term sustainability of the intervention. CESLY seeks to build on the accomplishments of precursor programming, while focusing inputs on cross-cutting areas where improvements can be realized: positioning the Ministry of Education as lead in programming directions;  providing more effective teacher training; addressing the learning needs of all students; connecting learning with jobs; establishing greater accountability for project results and learning outcomes; and making effective use of technology to enhance project reach and impact. To learn more, visit: http://idd.edc.org/projects/core-education-skills-liberian-youth-cesly

Here are some examples of promising practice(s) or lessons learned from these and other EQUIP3 projects:

1)  Sports for Youth Development in Uganda: Monitoring and Evaluation of an Assets-based Approach: From the Education For All (EFA) Youth Challenge Grant Program in Uganda: http://www.equip123.net/docs/e3-EFAUganda.pdf
This report summarizes the lessons from a fairly small-scale effort in two regions of Uganda - Lira and Kumi - to use sports as a means of engaging young people in education, healthy living, and peacebuilding in these post-conflict regions. In particular, the project sought partnership with a local non-governmental organization, The Kids League (TKL), in an effort to document the life of the project, and to establish a system for monitoring and evaluation of this and similar asset-based approaches to youth development. This document speaks about the project’s lessons learned in tracking youth developmental assets throughout the project as a way to monitor and document a holistic youth intervention.

2)  Lessons Learned from Moving the Haitian Out-Of-School Youth Livelihood Initiative (IDEJEN) Beyond the Pilot Phase: http://www.equip123.net/docs/e3-HaitiLessonsLearned.pdf
As part of a series of publications summarizing what is being learned “on the ground” from projects in more than a dozen countries, this report is from the pilot phase of the first EQUIP3 Associate Award, the Haitian Out-of-School Youth Livelihood Initiative (IDEJEN). This document, which was written in 2007 and is being published in this format now, summarizes the lessons learned and makes recommendations for the IDEJEN project as it moved from a pilot phase with 650 youth to a large-scale national project serving 13,000 youth. The report examines the following aspects of the project: developing a knowledge base, nonformal basic education, life skills, technical/vocational training, livelihood accompaniment, capacity-building of local organizations, monitoring and evaluation, and partnerships.

3)  Youth Livelihoods Development Program Guide: http://www.equip123.net/docs/e3-LivelihoodsGuide.pdf
The Youth Livelihoods Development Program Guide examines the presence of livelihood development (to complement workforce development) as a strategic necessity for national development, especially when delivered in careful coordination with traditional investments in health, education, democracy and governance, and economic growth activities. The guide is based on research carried out by EQUIP3 with youth project participants in Uganda, Morocco, the Philippines, Haiti and the West Bank. It provides a conceptual framework for designing effective youth livelihood strategies that reflect actual youth realities and respond to the existing goals, plans and strategies of young people themselves and their community supporters (especially at the household and extended family levels).

4)  Cross-Sectoral Approaches to Youth Development, EQ Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 2010: http://www.equip123.net/EQ_Review/8_2.pdf

5)  Monitoring Tools for Measuring Impact of Youth Programming, EQ Review, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 2010: http://www.equip123.net/EQ_Review/8_2.pdf

These documents are publicly available on the Publications page of the EQUIP3 website: http://www.equip123.net

Julito Aligaen Aug 31, 2010

The issue raised here was that, scale up of vocationalizing the education in disaster and emergencies but in terms of traditional type, basically farming and entrepreneurial. I agree with that perspective. That’s why in designing education curriculum we need to establish the pre-conditions such as looking ahead what would be the economic landscape looks like in 10 to 15 years from now. Looking at the local, national and regional economic landscape, it will tell us how we can develop a learning curriculum for given community under arms conflict, post war and post disasters. I think the most important issue here is we know exactly the preconditions since there are already good models, examples and innovative education that can be a basis of putting in place education and livelihood program that will address problems in illiteracy without setting aside the source of income of young people.

Julito Aligaen Sep 09, 2010

Sarah Sladen, I have something to clarify or ask some more examples wherein the situation is like this. I mean if the opportunity of employment is very much slim or scarce? What model do you have, in which your learner while learning is also making earning so at the end of the day, it can be translated into something for their benefits. This is making livelihood and learning at the same time. I mean the source of learning is the livelihood itself.

I understand all that you have posted as examples are preparations for employment (employment or self employment) and the way you are dealing with education is entirely separate from what they are doing. I mean they are typically working learners or students. they are earning from the work they have done, but not earning from what they are learning and learning from all the way as source of their earning. So, in your example if there is no available job that could be provided to them. the cost of investment of training them will still be lost and or the impact to their lives is not meaningful. Or you train them before giving the capital? Why not use the capital for livelihood and also and investment for their education? This is a theory of “Earning while Learning or Learning while Earning”

Benoit d'Ansembourg Sep 28, 2010

I realise that I am late but would still like to contribute to this important initiative. I used to be the Regional Programme Manager of the Foundation for the Refugee Education Trust (RET) in Africa from 2004 to 2010 and the co-convener of the INEE Adolescents and Youth Task Team from January 2008 to March 2009. The RET has learned many good lessons in Africa and elsewhere. On the funding issue, RET Africa managed to raise quite a lot of funds over the year. The key was to clearly demonstrate the programmes’ added value and benefits for the youths. In Chad, young Sudanese refugees had not educational opportunities before the RET started its non-formal education programme in 2005. Donors realised how important it was to give youths hope for the future and prevent them from being manipulated or even worse recruited. A number of youth who were lured into military activities or forcefully recruited returned to the camps arguing that they did not want to miss out on their studies. Not surprisingly, there were no female participants when the educational programme started. When I left the organisation in June 2009 there were more girls than boys…. Community involvement through regular meeting and the establishment of education committees was key in breaking cultural barriers and demonstrating the empowering potential of education. Many beneficiaries, particularly girls did not know what education was. This is very often a fact that we overlook. It did not take long for them to understand the benefits of the same. They even told the RET that they would never have been victimised the way they were, had they had access to education back home, in Darfur. If over the years a consensus on the value of primary education for children in crises has grown, the added value of post-primary education remains to be demonstrated. That is why it is so important to encourage donors to visit programmes, see for themselves, and discuss with beneficiaries. As for primary education the issue of certification is key. The fact that Sudanese refugees hosted in camps in Chad had to travel back home to take exams is a serious protection issue that has only been addressed recently. There were no secondary teachers in the camps, which explains why we had to go for non-formal education followed at a later stage by a formal distance education programme (in collaboration with a University in Khartoum). Peer to peer education was the only solution. Needless to say that building the capacity of the peer educators was a crucial and continued need.

In Burundi, the RET has since 2005 assisted secondary schools that received large numbers of secondary students returnees from Tanzania. The applied approach benefits the entire school not only the returnees. It has proved very good in terms of reintegration. Those who have fled the country during the crisis are very often seen as traitors who benefited from international aid while those who stayed feel that they are the ones who really suffered. The programme’s demonstrated impact on harmonious reintegration, a well-balanced combination of hardware (infrastructure renovations, construction, equipment provision, etc.) and software (citizenship/peace education programme) assistance has encouraged donors to repeatedly and increasingly support the programme.

The main point I would like to make is that donors may not see post-primary education as a priority but they are ready to fund solid programmes that give a sense to the life of conflict or disaster-affected youths, that protect them during the challenging time of exile or displacement, and that prepare them for the phase of return and recovery.

Benoit d'Ansembourg Sep 28, 2010

A UNESCO Institute for Statistics report published in 2010 provides some interesting (and rare) statistics on out of school adolescents: http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/pdf/EducGeneral/OOSA_EN.pdf.

How many of the reported 71 million out-of-school adolescents of lower secondary school
age are excluded from any level of education because of conflict or natural disaster?

The report also notes that “presently, no internationally accepted indicators for post-primary education exist”.

The Youth Roundtable is a most welcome opportunity to finally draw attention to the needs and expectations of young adolescents trapped in emergencies.

Fuad Abu Zahra Oct 23, 2010

Dear Mr Bah,
Thanks for your article and for you dedication to Education in Emergency. I just feel like commenting on your last paragraph in which you answered the worldwide repeatedly question on ‘How do we think of education while people are dying?’ In my view is the misconception of ‘education’ in the view of everybody everywhere. People take education stereotypically as mere matter of literacy and academic achievement, which is not urgent - in their views - during crises. They may be right in their thinking. However, what they misunderstand it that children ‘do need’ to be taken away from the trauma of the crisis and where they live their own normal life, to the phase of ‘pre-crisis’. They need to PLAY as an aim in itself not PLAY as a means to learning as we misconceive it. They need answers to their questions on “What’s going on?” and “Why?” Such question can only answered by well-trained teachers in emergency situations.
The other point is that ‘education’ is much more than literacy an academic achievements. It’s about developing their personalities as well as empowering them for appropriate response in emergency in future. We don’t need ‘schools’ in the traditional way during crises, all we need is a safe place for children to take them away and respond to their queries, if they have any - and definitely they do.
Thanks for your dedication and keep it up!

Julito Aligaen Oct 23, 2010

I absolutely agree with you Zahra. I don’t know how to have a change course from academic to survival level of learning. Learning not for academic rather, learning how to move these affected children from traumatic situation. But our educators (planers) and teachers even in severe condition still thinking of classrooms and literacy, how weird these people are.