Project Approaches and Principles

Since the very beginning, PROMOST has been focusing both on supply and demand: supply-side initiatives have included improving access for example through building and equipping vocational education institutions, developing training curricula that reflect the needs of the labour market, training of vocational school trainers, and in certain cases equipping partner companies and renovating their workshops as well as institutional capacity building.

On the demand side, the project addresses young people’s need for relevant technical skills, abilities, and employability, in order to facilitate viable self-employment, while improving their livelihoods. Studies are conducted for the project to ensure that each training course is market-focused.

To maintain a sound balance between the activities on the supply side and results on the demand side, from the very start of the project, Swisscontact worked with the private sector to offer short-term trainings and organise internships and apprenticeships. This was done to achieve tangible training results as quickly as possible and generate employment.

Principles of project implementation

PROMOST applies a systemic approach to vocational education and labour market integration. The purpose is to embed capacity-building initiatives within a legally, institutionally, and financially beneficial system from the ground up. Market-based and private sector solutions for vocational education and labour market integration are the programme’s main priorities.

• Swisscontact acts primarily as a facilitator of change, relying to the extent possible on local actors and platforms, who over the long term will be the main stakeholders in the vocational education systems of Rwanda, Burundi, and the DRC.
• Capacity building and the enhancement of existing vocational education programmes are of key importance.
• Gender equity and social inclusion are a further priority for the PROMOST Project. For this reason, social issues from the point of view of gender equity and social inclusion are viewed as intersectional themes on every project level.
• In all phases of project implementation, close attention is paid to conflict sensitivity as an intersectional theme.
• Likewise, coordination with national and local policies and strategies is uniquely important in the quest to ensure appropriate public action and alignment between vocational education approaches, labour market integration, and local economic development.
• PROMOST strives for “intelligent synergies” with ongoing country-specific TVET programmes and other SDC projects.
• Regional collaboration within the Economic Community of the Great Lakes Countries (CEPGL) and East African Community (EAC) is actively promoted, particularly in training of trainers, curriculum development, promotion of qualification accreditation, and on other levels of vocational education and training, as well as in the exchange of knowledge and best practices.