Welcome to Action Education Switzerland
Educating young people and adults through vocational training
Access to quality education is a fundamental right that must be accessible throughout life. Action Education is therefore developing training and socio-professional integration projects in the countries where it operates, particularly for the most disadvantaged young people and women.
What is vocational training?
Vocational training is the process of learning which enables an individual to acquire the skills and knowledge (know-how and interpersonal skills) needed to practise a trade or professional activity.
Lifelong education: essential access
By 2024, one in five young people, or 20.4 % of the world's population, will be young, are not in employment, education or training (ILO 2023). As a result, their access to decent jobs remains limited, particularly in emerging and developing economies. Many young people therefore find themselves without a means of subsistence, unable to support their families or integrate into society. In this context, girls and women are particularly at risk. More than 60% of the 773 million adults are women, who today cannot read or write and find it difficult to find employment.
Literacy and socio-professional training and integration programmes, which enable people to acquire leadership skills and self-confidence, as well as the skills and know-how needed to practise a trade or professional activity, are therefore essential if everyone is to build a fairer and more prosperous future.
How does Action Education support young people and women on the road to employment?
Action Education wants to help build a world where everyone has the opportunity to develop their full potential through access to education and training. quality learning.
Since 2005, we have been developing a major training and socio-professional integration programme. Initiated in South Asia, where we now have around fifty vocational training centres, this programme is now being developed in many of the countries where we operate.
Our vocational training and integration programme offers young people aged between 18 and 30, who have at least completed primary school, the opportunity to take free, fast-track, 3-month training courses leading to qualifications in fields as varied as sewing, beauty care, mechanics, hotel services, tourism, accountancy and IT.
Self-entrepreneurship training courses are also available to enable young people to seize their chance and develop their own business.
Our training and socio-professional integration projects
Today, our programme is particularly focused on vulnerable populations, particularly young people and women from discriminated communities.
Lasting just a few months, it enables people who have had little schooling to acquire skills and technical know-how. It also offers personal support to give them the confidence and desire to take action. It is used in most of the countries where we operate.
In Madagascar, a third of girls aged between 15 and 19 have at least one child. Stigmatised and rejected by society, they find themselves destitute. Action Education is running a vocational training project for 900 of them. For 3 years, these young girls will receive psychosocial support to regain their self-confidence, learn about gender-based violence and receive vocational training. The first training course was offered to 300 young women in October 2021.
The activities, which focused on the development of "life skills", helped these young women to improve their self-image and their self-esteem. boost their self-esteem.
Our ambitions
Educating future citizens
A group of pupils, democratically elected by the others, divides up the various aspects of school life by "department": environment, cleanliness, school grounds, canteen, etc.
This encourages children to take part in issues that concern them directly, and gives them a sense of responsibility. It fosters a sense of social awareness and civic responsibility, and gives them the opportunity to work on their command of language, both oral and written, and their ability to make themselves heard and express their ideas.
Protecting children's health
Action Education believes it is necessary to ensure the well-being and respect for the rights of all children in order to guarantee their access to quality education.
One of our priorities is therefore to provide children with a healthy environment. This means installing gender-specific latrines so that young girls can go to the toilet and avoid harassment. As well as giving importance to nutrition, it is necessary to ensure that children are neither deprived nor malnourished. Poor sanitary conditions have a considerable impact on children's education. Repeated illness leads to absenteeism and discourages parents from sending their children to school.
We also attach particular importance to the nutrition of the children we support.
Combating child labour
Children are also exposed to the dangers of trafficking and forced labour. In the world today, 160 million children are still forced to work, half of them in dangerous jobs.
Our priority is to ensure that no child is at risk of abuse, neglect or exploitation such as early marriage, rape, prostitution, child labour, abandonment, trafficking or drug abuse.
To do this, we are raising awareness in communities and developing preventive measures to provide effective support to families so that their children are in school and not at work.
Our news
on professional training
Young women lead change through learning
In Cambodia and around the world, more and more young women are taking action to create lasting change. Preap Keo and Sor Sokunthea are living proof of this: when they are trusted and given the means to act, they flourish,...
Action Education's Mag N°172: Madagascar, education in the spotlight
Contents Editorial: "Madagascar, an essential commitment", by Gilles Delecourt, International Managing Director of Action Education Madagascar : Access to education - A system in search of solutions Focus project - Strengthening education...
Action Education Magazine No 168: "Investing in teachers"
Editorial "An essential role in building a fairer, more sustainable world", by Gilles Delecourt, International Managing Director of Action Education News Cambodia - Improving the development of coastal communities Action...
Thanks to our vocational training project in India, Patrisha is rebuilding herself after suffering domestic violence
Photo credit: Chandra Kiran/Aide et Action India In India, more than a third of women say they have been beaten by their partner*. To support these victims of domestic violence, as well as other vulnerable women, Aide et Action offers the iLEAD programme...
Our projects
for vocational training
Gender equality through vocational and entrepreneurship training (GEVEE)
The project aims to boost entrepreneurship and employment opportunities for women, particularly those from ethnic minorities. Young girls, particularly those from rural areas, are at a disadvantage and do not have the same opportunities...
Consortium for Sustainable Alternatives and Voice for Equitable Development in Cambodia (CO-SAVED)
Strengthening the resilience of coastal fishing communities to climate change and reducing the social and economic divideThe fishing sector in Cambodia is crucial to the economy, providing around 80 % of animal protein to the population. The...
Vocational training and labour market integration for disadvantaged young people in Sri Lanka (ILEAD)
This project aims to meet the vocational education needs of young people from disadvantaged families, so that they can be more resilient in the face of crises.
