Youth and adult education through vocational training
Access to quality education must be possible throughout life, including for populations that have not received basic education. Action Education therefore develops training and socio-professional integration projects in its countries of intervention, aimed at the most disadvantaged youth and women.
What is vocational training?
Vocational training is the process of learning which enables an individual to acquire the knowledge, know-how and interpersonal skills necessary to exercise a trade or professional activity.
Lifelong learning: an essential access
272 million young people worldwide are out of school, without training, qualifications or diplomas (UNESCO). They therefore have no means of supporting themselves or their families, nor of integrating into society. 773 million adults, two-thirds of whom are women, cannot read or write and struggle to find employment.
Literacy and socio-vocational training and integration programmes that strengthen the skills and attitudes needed to exercise a trade or professional activity are therefore essential to enable everyone to benefit from a second chance and to build a more equitable and prosperous future.
How is Action Education working to develop vocational training around the world?
Action Education wants to help build a world where everyone has the opportunity to develop their full potential through access to education and quality learning.
Since 2005, we have been developing a major training and socio-professional integration programme. Initiated in South Asia, where we now have around fifty vocational training centres, this programme is now being developed in many countries of intervention, particularly in Laos, Cambodia and Burkina Faso.
Our training and professional integration programme offers young people aged between 18 and 30, who have at least completed primary school, the opportunity to follow free, rapid and qualifying 3-month training courses in fields as varied as sewing, beauty care, mechanics, hotel service, tourism, accountancy and IT.
Self-entrepreneurship training courses are also available to enable young people to seize their chance and develop their own business.
Our training and socio-professional integration projects
Our programme now focuses on women.
In just a few months, he teaches them skills and know-how and offers them personal coaching to give them confidence and the desire to act.
In the long term, it can transform cultural gender traditions and reverse the prevailing distribution of power.
It is implemented in most of our countries of intervention, including India, Burkina Faso and Laos.
In Madagascar, one third of girls aged 15-19 have at least one child. Stigmatised and rejected by society, they find themselves powerless.
Action Education runs a vocational training project for 900 of them.
For 3 years, these girls will receive psychosocial support. The first training was offered to 300 young women in October 2021. A first training course was offered to 300 young women in October 2021.
The animations, which focused on the development of "life skills", helped these young single mothers to improve their self-image and to strengthen their self-esteem.
Our news
on vocational training
«Education is an emergency - Let's take action!» An exhibition to get the lines moving!
To mark International Education Day on 24 January, we invite you to discover our new exhibition «Education is an emergency. Let's take action!»
From family weaving to women's entrepreneurship: how to promote gender equality in Laos and Vietnam
It's only a short step from ancestral know-how to setting up a micro-enterprise! Discover how the making of woven baskets and silk weaving have evolved from family secrets into recipes for success for Laotian and Vietnamese women entrepreneurs, supported by Action Education.
Madagascar: When men become women's allies
Find out how Action Education is helping to empower women in Cambodia through training.
In Cambodia, Kheng Phal is transforming his life through entrepreneurship
Find out how Action Education is helping to empower women in Cambodia through training.
Weaving the future: committed women take initiatives that fund education for vulnerable children
As part of the presidential initiative for quality education, Burkina Faso has undertaken a structural reform of the education system. It also promotes the enhancement of national culture, in particular through the environment...
Micro emergency project in Sissili Action Education's recognition of youth training centres
On 11 June 2025, Aide et Action/Action Education expressed its gratitude and recognition to the five vocational training centres that welcomed the 10 internally displaced young people for their vocational training as part of the emergency micro-project. The recognition ceremony was presided over by the High Commissioner of the Sissili province, Mr Isaak Tewendé SIA.
SANDRATRA project: A tripartite agreement to help young single mothers in Antananarivo
To meet the challenge of integrating young people into society and the workplace, particularly young single mothers in Antananarivo, a tripartite initiative has been launched to offer a new future to those who all too often remain on the margins of society. The Minister of Tourism and Handicrafts (MTA), the Mayor of the Antananarivo Urban Community (CUA) and the project manager, representing Action Éducation Madagascar, signed a partnership agreement for the Sandratra project on 16 April 2025.
Guinea: women entrepreneurs shaking up inequality
Women make up the majority of the population of working age (15-34) in Guinea. However, their employment rate is much lower than that of men: 42 % for women compared with around 64 % for men...
India: supporting rural women in their economic activity
In India, almost 75 % of rural women work in agriculture, but only 9 % of them own the land they cultivate. Despite their essential contribution to the economy, these women still face many obstacles...
Economic empowerment for women: Libeyeme's inspiring journey
At 28, Libeyeme is a widow with a 6-year-old son. She lives in the Savanes region, one of the poorest areas of Togo. The young woman has had to fight tirelessly to give her child a better future. A weaver by profession,...
Our projects
for vocational training
iLEAD in India - Employability and entrepreneurship training for young people in vulnerable situations
Background India has 230 million unemployed people, many of them young people excluded from the education system, with no jobs or prospects for the future. While unemployment among young graduates is a cause for concern, the situation is even more critical for those who have...
Gender equality through vocational training and entrepreneurship (EGFPE) in Laos and Vietnam
Action Education promotes gender equality by facilitating access to education and socio-economic integration for disadvantaged girls and women, and by questioning social norms from an intersectional perspective and deconstructing relationships of power and domination.
Educational issues and stakeholder dynamics surrounding the schooling of children living in precarious housing in Val-de-Marne
Action Education is involved in the Val-de-Marne region, where the challenges of educating children in precarious housing situations are significant.
The power to act of young people in precarious housing: social impact and inclusion through innovative psychosocial, educational and creative practices (Yes I'm IN)
We are working together to promote equal opportunities and inclusion for young people living in precarious housing conditions in Romania, Bulgaria and France.
Cambodian Consortium for Out-of-School Children
Improving access to quality primary education for some of Cambodia's most disadvantaged children In 2021 : The prolonged closure of schools from March to November has had a significant impact on access to education across the country, including in...
Consortium for Sustainable Alternatives and Voice for Equitable Development in Cambodia (CO-SAVED)
This project aims to improve the socio-economic development of coastal communities so that they become more resilient through better provision of education and social services.
Together for a better life
We are strengthening and supporting local associations in their work with children and their families living in precarious housing conditions in Romania.
