Le Défi

Results for Development, with support from the Rockefeller Foundation, is exploring innovative models for skills delivery at the secondary school level in Africa and Asia. Please email education@resultsfordevelopment.org with questions about the ISESE project and competition. ISESE Competition - Winners Announced!

Results for Development is excited to announce the winners of the Innovative Secondary Education for Skills Enhancement (ISESE) Competition!

After careful evaluation and deliberation based on our criteria of innovation, impact, sustainability and potential for scale-up or replication, our expert jury panel has awarded one winner from each region a prize of $1000.

In addition, the field of finalists was so impressive – in particular those from the Asia region – the jury panel has decided to award two additional runners-up an award of $500 each. The runner up from the Africa region will also receive an award of $500.

We are excited by the level of innovation we have seen for increasing youth employability, and we know that these entries from our 12 countries only scratch the surface of what exists around the world. We hope to continue to explore these innovations with a wider geographic lens in the near future.

Thank you again to all of our entrants for their time and consideration in entering the competition!

WINNERS: Asia Region

• Yuwa: Kicking It New School (India). This program provides girls with the opportunity to develop self-confidence and leadership skills by joining a soccer team, and to receive a better education by participating in Yuwa's building bridges programs. The jury found this model to be a particularly innovative and responsive program for a marginalized girl-child population in Jharkhand.

Africa Region

• Improving the Quality and Relevance of Middle School in Senegal (Senegal). Through this program, FHI 360 worked with the Minister of Education, civil society, and the business sector to reform middle-school curriculum in Senegal to create a cohesive curriculum capable of teaching 21st century skills. The jury found this model transformative in its potential to create institutional change in Senegal’s public education system.

RUNNERS UP: Asia Region

• IT Training for Youth with Disabilities (Vietnam). This IT training program would seek to address the lack of employment opportunities for people with disabilities in Vietnam, by providing them with advanced technical training, soft-skills training, and business linkage. The ISESE jury panel found this model innovative not only in its provision of employable skills to a vulnerable population, but also for its potential to encourage social mobility in a particularly marginalized minority.
• Multi-Skill Vocational Training and Entrepreneurship Development as Part of Secondary Education (India). Lend-A-Hand India implements a program in government-aided schools that is a blend of traditional academic work and hands-on projects that emphasize relevant skills students need in rural areas. This model struck the jury as particularly responsive to the real needs of the population it serves. The potential for scale-up is also significant, and it has buy-in from both local institutions and the community.

Africa Region

• Emusoi Centre (Tanzania). Emusoi Center seeks to provide opportunities for education, both academic and vocational, for secondary school age Maasai girls. The Center provides a transitional space for young women coming from traditional life styles, providing academic, social and psychological mentorship to join the multi-cultural/multi-tribal environment of secondary schools in the area. The jury found the holistic element of Emusoi’s services to young women in this rural population to be an important element of success in this programs delivery of relevant skills.

SPECIAL MENTION TO THE REMAINDER OF THE TOP 10 FINALISTS

In addition to our winners and runners up, special mention should also go to the following 5 models. The jury panel commended their potential, and all are taking significant steps to support youth employability in their countries.

• Arts-based Learning for English Language Skills: Local Culture and Place-based Education, India: This is a unique model based on spiral learning, arts based education and knowledge construction which facilitates the development of English proficiency in very short periods of time. The program is centered around using local language, culture and way of life to learn English.
• Optimizing Secondary Schools for Skills and Livelihoods through PPPs and CSR, Pakistan: There are fewer government secondary schools in Pakistan compared to primary schools, so this TVET program was established to teach secondary students a variety of skills with several partners through CSR and PPPs.
• Joyful Learning in Non-Government Secondary Schools in Bangladesh: Public Private Partnership, Bangladesh: BRAC through this program seeks to support mainstream Secondary Schools by creating an environment conducive to learning. BRAC works to improve the capacity of School Management Committees, provides teacher training, and promotes computer-aided learning. BRAC also initiated a student mentorship program to promote leadership, self-esteem and creativity among secondary school students.
• Rural Youth Empowerment Programme, India: The Rural Youth Empowerment Programme works to improve rural youth's job skills in the manufacturing, construction, service, and infrastructure sectors by using the Model-Train-Place Model.
• UCEP: A Beacon of Hope, Bangladesh: UCEP educates children from the slums by providing them with a relevant education that includes skills training and job placement.