The quality of women’s futures will be determined by the quality of opportunities they have to learn and develop relevant skills – skills that enable them to access, perform, and create dignified and fulfilling work.
It’s not just about access to training but access to learning that ultimately leads to earning.
Take 24-year-old Lidya as an example.
Lidya graduated with a diploma in Surveying from Tegbareid Poly Technique College. But even with her diploma, she struggled for over two years looking for a job in Addis Ababa.
Then her friends told her about a new professional nanny training at Nave Hotel and Tourism College developed in collaboration with LIWAY.
Lidya decided to sign up for the three-month training, hoping it would lead to work. She was delighted to learn she fulfilled the selection criteria, which includes targets based on age, gender, unemployment status, and maximum income.
Nave Hotel and Tourism College not only provides the skills training but also facilitates job opportunities for trained women and youth in collaboration with public and private partners. Lidya benefited from this opportunity and was recruited by Alem Daycare. She now earns a monthly salary of 2,500 ETB and has plans to establish her own daycare centre in the future.
Lydia is one of 1,250 women and youth trained so far, of which 912 have secured employment as professional nannies.
Identifying learning-for-earning opportunities: Connecting the dots across market systems
Our diagnostic studies in the labour system in Addis Ababa found very few accessible and affordable childcare services for poor women. This impacts their ability to participate in the labour market and is a key reason for high unemployment among women. We are addressing this gap through different labour system interventions, such as a new model that uses surplus space on public institution compounds to start and/or expand pro-poor childcare services.
But an increased number of childcare facilities means an increased need for trained nannies to provide quality services. Yet our diagnostic studies in the skills system found a shortage of trained nannies and few training institutes that provide professional nanny training. Those programmes that do exist tend to be poor quality.
The intervention we piloted with Nave Hotel and Tourism College addresses the constraints through the development of improved training materials in consultation with key stakeholders and linkages with potential employers. Based on the success of the pilot, the College plans to replicate the model in additional sub-cities and regions.
By connecting the dots across the labour system and the skills system we have been able to both identify learning-for-earning opportunities and facilitate the growth of related employment opportunities for women. As a result, we are helping increase women’s incomes more broadly – not only through employment as professional nannies but also through employment enabled because of those professional nannies.
LIWAY seeks to deliver impact through intentionally designed skills system interventions that catalyse medium and long-term sustained changes in the knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviour — capacity and capability — of young women and men as they seek, create, and take up opportunities for dignified and fulfilling work, and the ripple effects on their families and communities. The skills system is led by Save the Children International.