Employment-focused Subject Delivered in Secondary Schools

Secondary education provides pivotal infrastructure to reach young people at a critical point of labor market transition. Yet, many education systems struggle to meet the needs of young people and reflect real-world labor market demands.

Rising debt burdens, resource constraints, and harmful legacies of colonialism pose challenges for national education systems. As a result, learning rarely translates to economic opportunity.

Building Skills for Employment in School

Educate! has developed an evidence-based solution for integrating employment skills into national education systems through the introduction of a secondary school subject. We deliver this learning experience directly in schools and partner with ministries of education to advance national, employment-focused curriculum reforms.

Together, we’re working to address the mismatch between learning and life after school, transforming classrooms into launchpads for employment that prepare young people for the world of work.

Driving Sustainable, Systematic Change Across Africa

Leveraging evidence and over a decade-plus experience delivering employment-focused learning directly in schools in Uganda, we have developed an end-to-end, system-integrated solution that supports governments to advance national employment-focused education reforms and impact young people at nationwide scale.

This comprehensive approach tackles not only advancing policy change but also supports government-led initiatives to develop the assessment systems, accountability structures, and long-term sustainability mechanisms needed to make reforms stick.

Government Partnerships

This work began in Uganda in 2009 with the development of an employment-focused subject delivered directly to secondary students by local youth Mentors. Since then, we have extensively evaluated our approach, developed a comprehensive systems-change model, and scaled this approach across Uganda — and across the region. 

Educate! has served as a technical advisor on employment-focused reforms in Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania. We currently have active partnerships with ministries of education in Rwanda and Tanzania, where we are working to advance the integration of employment-focused reforms and real-world learning nationwide.