FUNDAP and Fundación del Valle throughout 2010 and 2011 have developed a project in Guatemala designed to promote work opportunities for young men and women who study the basics at public schools in the Quetzaltenango department. In the framework of this initiative, supported by Obra Social Caja Madrid, 16 educational centres have received support and a total of 65 youngsters have taken part in technical training courses.
Since the start of the project, one of the fundamental pillars in achieving its success and ensuring its sustainability was to count on the whole community’s involvement, as well as that of the local partners and politicians in the performing area. In this sense, various activities were carried out to synthesise the population such as distributing guidance cards to highlight the importance of technical professional training and its link with the progress of the community.
In addition, with the intention of continuing to encourage activities relating to the project, educational trips were carried out and up to ten informative assemblies and various skill workshops with fathers and mothers from nearby families on how to make rural areas more attractive to young people or on the technical professional guidance of their sons/daughters. At the same time, training workshops were held aimed at directors and dozens of educational centres as a fundamental aspect of developing training programs and different projects with students.
My First Business
Among the activities considered by the project, students and teachers put together the research guide ‘My first business and market’. For that, the basis of a study they took enabled them to detect more demanding areas in the job market such as in baking, screen printing and electricity, linking results with technical training received in immersion courses.
The business fairs celebrated in the area became the perfect setting for the youngsters to advertise their products. Such is the case for José Antonio García Hernández, who is a third grader at primary school in ICEFAT La Felicidad, situated in the municipality of Coatepeque, Quetzaltenango department.
In November 2010 José Antonio did an immersion course in the Panadería area and in April he partook in a business fair. “To be able to advertise the products I make and what I learnt to do during the course, I made pizza to sell at the event. My product was well received and in hardly any time I managed to sell the lot. Due to the success of this experience, business fairs happen every two months. With the income that I’ve obtained to this day, counts for a little capital for producing goods. I would like in the future to start a bakery and with the additional income, support my family and helping develop my community”.
Improving opportunities
Guatemala has a population of over 14 million habitants, of which 20% are youngsters between 15 and 24 years old. An 80% of them is estimated to not have access to formal education, which makes it hard to escape the poverty cycle in which they live.
Women and young residents in the rural area, find themselves at a clear disadvantage in accessing job opportunities. In the youngsters’ case, the percentages of unemployment vary in accordance to where they live, thus the situation in the rural area reflects the 35% who neither study nor work, however it’s estimated that youngsters represent 25% of the labour force.
To take advantage of this collective’s potential, the work of FUNDAP is aimed at improving qualifications through two specific programs: technical training for professional training in technical and corporate areas for youngsters and/or women in the rural area of west Guatemala; and the ICEFAT, education centres at primary level that, based on community involvement, encourage the training of school-aged youngsters, enabling them to get a job.
Due to this network of institutes, as well as the official systems of basic education, young men and women emerge as the fundamental players in encouraging opportunities for progress and social growth.
