Improving Education for Work, Learning and Success: Quarterly Report July 1st to September 30th, 2015

The program was implemented through CESAL, with EDC and Project METAS staff providing an induction on the methodology. The program aimed to strengthen the competence and skills of young people for their lives and especially for their jobs, helping them with motivation, self-discovery, decision making, and increasing the probability of obtaining an International professional preparation certificate. The program benefited up to 2,500 young people. The Vocational Diagnostic was applied to 500 young people from educational centers in Tegucigalpa. This supplementary service allowed the strengthening of the competencies and skills of young people for their lives and especially for their jobs. The results of the diagnostic are currently being tabulated, and return interviews are being given to young people. The analysis will be presented in the next report. A workshop about the strengthening of the basic job skills program with innovative teaching strategies was held. The workshop lasted 16 hours and aimed to strengthen the basic skills required to pass the certification exam. Many teachers are not from the specific areas that are evaluated by PCLB (applied mathematics, information research, informative reading). The workshop was developed in collaboration with DGDP (General Direction of Professional Development), which depends on the Ministry of Education. The implementation of the Bridge Strategy, which developed labor linkage, was done with the help of grant partners who were strengthened with the methodology and tool for labor linkage development. The Bridge Strategy was developed in three cities: San Pedro Sula, La Ceiba, and Tegucigalpa. It encompasses internships that have a lasting period of 20 days, allowing training in the work environment and jobs. The number of internships up to date is 494, and 106 jobs have been created. The project aims to increase these results in the next quarter as it is the high season for companies and they require human resources. The implementation of these activities has required the project to develop additional capabilities, establish new processes, and find strategic partners who could implement these new activities. The project received an extension of 14 months and $2M to extend activities until March 1, 2017. The purpose of this extension is to increase the quality of services that prevent violence by providing job skills certificates to at-risk youth and strengthening partnerships with the private sector, focusing on employability. The activities will be under two of the four original components of METAS: Component Three, Training and basic job skills Certification Program, and Component Four, Partnership with Private Sector (Employability).