UN Women’s Second Chance Education and Vocational Learning Programme

UN Women’s Second Chance Education (SCE) Programme (2018–2024) provides women who have missed out on education with a second chance to access learning and training opportunities and find pathways to personal and economic empowerment. It was piloted in six countries in three different contexts: humanitarian crisis (Cameroon and Jordan), middle income (Chile, India and Mexico) and with refugee, migrant and indigenous women in a high income country (Australia). The programme is carried out by local implementing organizations who adapt the SCE model to their own context.

In Cameroon, SCE participants are offered training in practical skills that can lead to employment, entrepreneurship and income generation, such as tailoring, animal husbandry and crop farming. Life skills training and support are also provided. Some young women have returned to formal education and been supported to take school exams. SCE Cameroon also support beneficiaries who abandoned school in final exam classes to return to formal education, write the final exams and get certificates. Awareness-raising activities are also organized in the community and with media about harmful social norms, the importance of education for girls and women, gender-based violence and the stigma attached to female-headed households, displaced women or teenage mothers. 

In Jordan, the program targets the most vulnerable women in, both Syrian refugees and Jordanian women, through partnerships with UNHCR and the Ministry of Social Development (MOSD). The Oasis centers operate in 22 locations in Jordan. In non-camp settings, there are 18 centers operating in host communities across the Kingdom in partnership with the MOSD, in addition to four Oasis centers running in Za’atari and Azraq refugee camps. The Oasis model addresses key barriers to women's engagement in livelihoods, using cash for work income generation to meet basic needs, empowering women, and enhancing decision-making in households. 

In Chile, the programme is delivered through a 100% online modality, including synchronous and asynchronous activities that are complemented with direct support from facilitators. The remote modality has allowed participants take advantage of the benefits of e-learning: more flexibility as to when and where access the courses and learn, avoiding the barriers that women face in accessing learning opportunities, such as caregiving and domestic work. The programme has more than 5,000 graduates and a Network of Mentors with over 140 volunteers who have offered advice to more than thousand women on specific topics. Furthermore, more of 530 women have been certified to become mentors of other women and be agents of change in their communities. After 3 years of execution, the results of the programme are clear: 37% of graduates have improved their incomes; 16% have found employment; 19% have returned to formal education; 23% have started a new business and 36% of women have improved the business they already had because of the programme. In addition, since October 2022 the programme has implemented a "Leadership School” that aims to promote women’s leadership and participation in the community and strengthen their skills, knowledge, and tools to boost their roles as change agents promoting transformation. The Leadership School has already trained and certified 87 women leaders from all over the country.

In India, the programme runs in 4 States - Bihar, Odisha, Rajasthan and Maharashtra - covering 12 districts and 200 villages. The programme is delivered through an implementing partner, with a dedicated team in every State and a consortium of CSOs specialising in the region. The mobilisation, training and linkages to livelihoods are done offline to ensure outreach to the most remote parts of the districts and enable women overcome barriers to education and skilling. The programme has enrolled over 30,000 women across the education, employment and skilling pathways, mobilised over 150 employers, and conducted over 2000 gender training events. The programme has also seen women migrate across States to seek jobs, and seen a high success rate of over 60% women who have successfully completed Grade 10 or 12 from those enrolled, and rest are yet to give the examinations. The programme has also been successful in mobilising funds and in-kind contributions for the implementing partner through other organisations for installing digital devices in the WEHs, or provide solar powered equipment to entrepreneurs, and also mobilise funding for women entrepreneurs through loans from private and government banking systems. The programme also actively engages with the government to advocate for better policies targeted towards women. The SCE programme has developed 2 policies for the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) in India - on Inclusive Education and Gender - which were released by NIOS officially. These policies have been developed by UN Women and NIOS, and impact millions of learners (over 2.4 million) part of NIOS, and will also be taken to the State Open Schools in each of the 28 States in India. 

In Mexico SCE has been implemented through learning centers and online opportunities with a distinctive offer based on its cross-cutting training pillars of personal growth, digital literacy and financial education plus a training offer based on the local context, opportunities for entrepreneurship and employment, and the interests of the participants.  During its implementing period, SCE in Mexico reached more than 8,700 women and 5,830 have completed the program, 4280 women have improved their digital skills and 1,194 gain financial skills that strengthen their economic resources management. Also as soon as completing the program, 50% of women gained access to an income generating activity and more than 60% reported that SCE had a positive or very positive impact on the improvement of their income. Women have also shared that SCE has impacted their lives beyond the acquirement of specific skills. Through SCE they have experienced access to hubs felt as kind and secure spaces where they have found other women like them, who inspire and support them by being true mentors, as well as content that impacts their daily decisions and their own self-perception. They give an account of a transformative process through which they feel empowered to keep learning new things, are more aware of the effect of their decisions in their own lives and have improved their life skills. This is why the program is, indeed, a Second Chance for women, their families, and communities. 

In Australia, UN Women partners with Real Futures and SisterWorks to deliver the SCE programme. During the period 2019 – 2022, the programme was fully funded by UN Women. In 2023, both organisations have been able to secure alternative sources of funding to continue to deliver SCE, but continue a non-financial partnership with UN Women to share knowledge and grow our mutual evidence base on effective SCE methodologies.