Blog: Overcoming barriers and ensuring equal opportunities: Education, skills & work-based learning for developing employability of girls in India
While the number of girls in India who are able to improve their future prospects and experience economic empowerment is increasing, they still face a number of barriers such as gender differentiations in earnings, career progression and occupational segregation in the transition from education to employment.
According to a 2018 ILO-UNICEF study entitled 'Skills, Education and Training for Girls Now', the global NEET rate, which measures the proportion of youth not in education, employment or training, is twice as high for female than male youth (at 31 and 16 per cent, respectively). In India, the NEET rate is 43 per cent for males and 96 per cent for females. What inhibits the transition of female youth from education to work? What leads younger women to drop out of the workforce, and what prevents them from returning to paid work later on? This blog discusses the barriers that female youth in India face in acquiring education and skills for improving their employability and proposes a set of measures that could help overcome such barriers.
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