Leveraging Apprenticeships to Reach and Benefit Vulnerable Youth: Lessons from STRIVE’s Afghan Secure Futures Program
- Partner: Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and FHI360
- Publication Type: Report
- Date: December 2013
- Team: Ben Fowler, Jennifer Denomy, and Scott Ruddick
- Recommended Citation:
STRIVE has implemented four field projects in Africa and Asia between 2008 and 2013. Each project has pursued a unique economic strengthening approach, ranging from savings-led finance to workforce development to value chain interventions. This report summarizes the findings of one of four STRIVE-funded initiatives, MEDA’s Afghan Secure Futures (ASF) project. ASF focused on benefiting youth apprentices working in workshops in the Afghan construction sector.
This report draws from the experience of the ASF project to highlight several important technical considerations when seeking to benefit vulnerable youth apprentices via indirect interventions that target the workshop owners. Its intended audiences are implementers and donors who are developing programming for vulnerable children and youth and considering entry points for interventions or pathways for economic inclusion. The report discusses each lesson in turn and then presents a few final conclusions.
