The Empowerment Through Skills Program (ESP) is designed to strengthen alternative pathways to education, employment, self-employment and entrepreneurship for women and adolescent girls by working with Folk Development Colleges (FDCs) and Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) in 12 Communities across Tanzania.
It aims to increase participation among women and adolescent girls in skills training programs and improve access to business, skills, and gender and human rights training in their communities. It will expand opportunities for women and adolescent girls in the informal and formal sectors through post-training support to transition to employment or self-employment.
The Tanzania Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MOEST) through the Department of Technical and Vocational Training (DTVET) has partnered with CICan to implement this gender responsive secondary education vocational training initiative.
Supporting Women and Adolescent Girls Education and Training for Economic Empowerment
ESP, working through six partnerships between Tanzanian FDCs and CBOs, in collaboration with Canadian colleges, will support the development of community-demand-driven, competency-based, gender and human rights-responsive skills training programs. The partnerships that will be forged between Canadian and Tanzanian partners will also support leadership, community development, training and post-training services support, and gender-responsive teacher training. This will in turn strengthen the capacity of the FDCs and CBOs to foster women’s economic and social empowerment and maintain sustainable gender mainstreaming initiatives beyond ESP.
ESP will:
- support FDCs and CBOs to build capacity to develop and deliver effective gender responsive skills training programs specifically targeting women and adolescent girls.
- support women and adolescent girls as they transition to employment or self-employment for economic empowerment across occupational areas of local and national economic importance.
- help FDCs to establish business incubators for use by graduates and provide access to a small innovation fund to support the application of theory and practice in the pursuit of opportunities for employment, self-employment, and entrepreneurship.
- engage men and boys in the local communities in awareness-raising activities that highlight the benefits of women’s economic and social empowerment to gain their support for women’s training and women’s economic enterprises in their communities.
