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Our vision
Quality
Relevance
Equity
Affordability
Skills to
industry demands
9 countries
Connect
Match
Improve education and skills provision in the following areas:
Who benefits?
Government
Young People
Education
Business
People with improved access to education and training by 2023
Technical assistance and training interventions delivered
Young people
Improved skill levels, access to jobs and reduced poverty
Business/ industry
Better skilled workforce
Education institutions
Build capacity through expertise
Partner countries
Accelerate inclusive economic growth
Key stats
What we do
2.7M+
5K+
Strengthen fragmented education and skills systems to equip �young and marginalised groups with skills fit
for the future.
Skills for Prosperity
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Actions to get more girls and women into quality education and jobs
March 2022
Skills for Prosperity Mexico
Implemented by:
I. Changing negative mindsets
As part of its artnership with International Youth Foundation (IYF) and PepsiCo Foundation,SFPMx launched a campaign on online media, radio and print to point out that “Vocation has no gender”.
This project aimed to encourage young women to pursue “non-traditional” or STEM careers, saw successful women in these sectors join as role models for girls. The campaign targeted 15,000 girls as well as their families and friends, as they may reinforce gender stereotypes and prevent young women from studying or working in these sectors. It was rolled out in the Mexican state of Jalisco and will be replicated in other S4P priority states this year, to reach even more female students.
Photo from the “Vocation has no gender” campaign. Translation: If I can do it, then every woman can
II. Tackling gender stereotypes and negative biases in career choice
Making use of behavioral sciences, SFPMX designed a nudge intervention whose main objective is reducing gender differences in career choices in Conalep Chihuahua, a upper-secondary TVET institution. Its design builds on evidence from successful interventions to reduce gender gaps in education and the labor market and includes three components: 1) an Implicit Association Test, 2) a counter-stereotype exercise; and 3) a decision leaflet.
This intervention is also aimed at encouraging young women to pursue “non-traditional” or STEM careers, and is expected to have benefited more tan 2,000 students in the past semester. The assessment of the results is in process and will be available in May.
III. Changing institutions
SFPMx has also been building the capacity of the TVET schools that participate in the programme, so that current and future students enjoy inclusive education. This ranges from getting advice when making career decisions or looking for their first job, to learning and working in environments that are free of gender-based discrimination.
Specifically, we have been training professors and administrative staff in education institutions as well as leadership teams in companies so they can identify rules and practices that may hinder gender equality. Through a series of courses, they have been learning how to avoid gender-biased language, create equal opportunities for work-based learning, help graduates develop employability skills, and balance women’s participation in leadership positions.
“I am an engineer and only two women finished the programme in my generation” - Mary Romero, Academic Director at the High Technology Training Centre CENALTEC in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua State.
video
IV. Creating new leaders
SFPMx is implementing a mentoring programme in the Autonomous University of Chihuahua (UACH).
The aim is to encourage Young women to complete their STEM undergraduate studies and inspire them to pursue a specialisation in these fields.
S4P will also establish a support network that will involve women professionals in STEM and will assign them to final-year female engineering students so they can act as their mentors.
V. Removing barriers to women’s participation
“SFPMx promotes a change in business and labor culture to encourage equality and discrimination, as well as the inclusion of women, people with disabilities, LGBT communities and immigrants to the enjoyment of the human right to a dignifying and decent work” - Adelina González, Director of Promotion of Non-Discrimination Culture, National Council to Prevent Discrimination
SFPMx carries out various affirmative actions to balance the participation of women in school and leadership positions.
The program has carried out 50 technical assistance actions for nearly 1,500 participants, and 56% are women.
Through training on labor equality and non-discrimination standards, affirmative actions are encouraged to increase the number of women in management positions.
DAI Global, official supplier of the UK Prosperity Programming’s Skills Strand
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