Study: The Education–Training–Decent Work Continuum
Launched on 30 September 2021, the NORRAG, Swiss Network for Education and International Cooperation (RECI) and Zurich University of Teacher Education (PHZH) study “The education, training and decent work Continuum: Opportunities for transformative perspectives for inclusion” examines the continuum approach to tackling discontinuities widely observed between education, training and work by studying a selection of projects by RECI members. The continuum approach proposed in the study aims to help enable learners to move between education, training and work at any point in their lives and in any order.
The report starts with a brief introduction of the notion of Continuum, with a focus on the discontinuities that currently exist between its constituent entities: education, training and decent work. Existing discontinuities between these three fields appear to create and reinforce exclusion and inequality for marginalized segments of the population. The authors argue that treating the three fields as a continuum would allow for the reintegration of people who have been excluded from the “standard” journey between education, training and decent jobs. It then introduces and analyses five projects and draws lessons from across the five case studies.
The five projects are as follows:
- Social inclusion of Roma through education, employment and socio-economic support in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Caritas Switzerland)
- Education, work and peace: Promising opportunities for young adults in Soacha, Colombia (Vivamos Mejor)
- Alternative education programme for young people in Niger (Enfants du Monde with Swisscontact)
- Job orientation training in businesses and schools in Romania (Zürich University of Teacher Education (PHZH), Department of International Projects in Education)
- ON-D-GO: Developing the employability skills of displaced persons in Switzerland and six other European countries, (Swiss Federation for Adult Learning).
The study was edited by Michel Carton, NORRAG Senior Advisor and Aude Mellet.
Read the study in NORRAG Resource Library: