Empowering Young Women through Business and Vocational Training: Evidence from a Field Intervention in Rural Egypt
Empowering Young Women through Business and Vocational Training: Evidence from a Field Intervention in Rural Egypt
The International Labour Organization is the tripartite U.N. agency that promotes Decent Work through employment, social security, labour standards and social dialogue. Its work on skills development is guided by the conceptual framework on Skills to improve productivity, employment growth, and development agreed in 2008 by representatives of Governments, Employers’ Associations and Workers’ Associations. Research, policy advice, and pilot projects and technical cooperation programmes to apply good practices in different circumstances across its 185 member States aims to boost the employability of workers, the productivity and competitiveness of enterprises, and the inclusiveness of economic growth. The ILO Secretariat in offices in 40 countries works with Ministries of Labour, employers’ organizations, and trade unions to integrate skills development into national and sector development strategies in order to better meet current labour market needs and to prepare for the jobs of the future; to expand access to employment-related training so that youth, persons with disabilities and other vulnerable groups are better able to acquire skills and secure productive and decent work; and to improve the ability of public employment services to provide career guidance, maintain labour exchange services, and deliver active labour market programmes.For more information regarding the ILO’s work on skills and employability go to: http://www.ilo.org/skills/lang--en/index.htm; for ILO/Cinterfor's Knowledge Management Plarform, see: http://www.oitcinterfor.org
Access for all to good quality education, vocational training and workplace learning is a fundamental principle of social cohesion and economic growth. Some groups of people may require targeted attention if they are to benefit from education, training and employment opportunities.
This is particularly the case for disadvantaged youth, lower skilled workers, people with disabilities, and people in rural communities. The attractiveness of vocational education and training is enhanced when combined with entrepreneurship training and when public policies encourage utilization of higher skills by business.
Women represent both half of the world's population – and half the world's economic potential. Their participation in the labour market reduces poverty because they often invest 90 per cent of their income in the well-being, education and nutrition of their families. Yet labour force participation by women has stagnated at about 55 per cent globally since 2010. Moreover, women are disproportionately represented in precarious work – low-paid, low-skilled and insecure jobs.
Training plays an important role in the pursuit of equality of opportunity and treatment for women and men in the world of work. Yet women often lack access to technical and vocational education and training. Many also lack the basic functional skills, such as literacy and numeracy, to participate meaningfully in the work force. Overcoming this challenge requires the adoption of a life-cycle approach. This includes improving girls’ access to basic education; overcoming logistic, economic and cultural barriers to apprenticeships and to secondary and vocational training for young women; and meeting the training needs of women re-entering the labour market and of older women who have not had equal access to opportunities for lifelong learning.
Working papers, reports, and other publications from international organizations, academic institutions and bilateral agencies. Research findings to stimulate informed debate on skills, employment and productivity issues.
Impact Report Series, Issue 8. The ILO Taqeem 'Impact Report' series disseminates research reports from Taqeem-supported impact evaluations. The studies use experimental and quasi-experimental approaches to estimate employment outcomes of active labour market policies and programmes. The goal is to improve the evidence base for 'what works' in the effective design and implementation of integrated employment policy responses for youth and women’s employment. Taqeem is a partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) as part of an IFAD-financed project titled 'Strengthening gender monitoring and evaluation in rural employment in the Near East and North Africa'.
This paper presents the findings of an impact evaluation of a large-scale training and empowerment intervention in rural Upper Egypt, a region with some of the lowest rates of female labour force participation and highest gender disparities in the Arab World. The intervention offered business, vocational and life skills training combined with business development services and civic education to 4,500 young women in 30 villages in rural Upper Egypt. The evaluation of the intervention used difference-in-difference and propensity score matching and included 5,704 survey respondents in the follow-up data collection round. Results of the study concentrate on outcomes related to labour market status and career aspirations.
Key messages:
1. The intervention resulted in a strong and highly significant impact on labour market outcomes, economic aspirations and business knowledge of young women in treated villages compared to control villages.
2. Economic empowerment of young women can be increased by combining hard and soft skills, in the form of business, vocational and life skills training, combined with civic education and guidance on how to start a business or become employed.
3. Interventions that specifically target young women must employ a gender-sensitive design, which would include gender-sensitive outreach, creating female-friendly spaces during training, minimizing the distance to training facilities, flexible timing of classes and close mentoring by local women to serve as role models.
4. Promoting safe, flexible, female-friendly employment and workplaces for women including maternity protection and more harmonized work-life balance will help in increasing female labour market participation in Egypt.
5. A combination of creative gender dynamics curricula and innovative programme design is needed if the social and economic empowerment of young women in rural societies is to be increased.
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