Policy Brief: Creating New Opportunities for Women and Girls: Enhancing Women's and Girls' Success in Technical and Vocational Education

Abstract

The empowerment of women and girls through Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) gives them an opportunity to acquire job-related skills for meaningful employment, a key contribution to poverty reduction. Governments are therefore, acting to improve women’s and girls’ enrolment in TVET courses, which have been primarily male-dominated. However, there are multiple barriers to women’s and girls’ access to TVET, including negative attitudes about TVET, financial constraints, and a male-oriented perspective in pedagogy, curricula, and learning materials. Based on lessons from a rapid literature review and COL’s own experience, this policy brief makes recommendations for increasing women’s and girls’ participation rates in employment-related skills training as well as gender-responsive approaches to improve women’s and girls’ retention and success in TVET.