Education, training & decent employment
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Enabel is dedicated to fostering resilient and inclusive education, training, and employment ecosystems and to promoting sustainable socio-economic growth that leaves no one behind.
Improving access, quality and management of general education
Together with our partners, we invest in improving primary and secondary education by focusing on teacher training, curriculum reform, and innovative teaching methods to foster student-centered learning. We advocate for the use of digital technologies to enhance both teacher and student capabilities, ensuring digital literacy and increasing digital skills.
Enabel also works to improve access to education, particularly for girls and vulnerable youth, by addressing barriers and fostering safe, inclusive learning environments. We are building and rehabilitating schools, prioritizing climate-smart and child-friendly designs. Additionally, we support transparent, inclusive, and accountable school management structures.
Skilling for decent jobs
We prioritize skills development to fight (youth) unemployment by bridging the gap between labour market demands and the education and training offer. Mainstreaming digital and green skills ensures youth readiness for the modern economy. This approach prepares a skilled workforce, better equipped to find a decent job or to become an entrepreneur.
It benefits individual well-being and economic development, involving the private sector. Additionally, we concentrate on developing inclusive tools and methods to support vulnerable groups’ access to the labour market.
Our tools
Quality education through teacher training
Enabel is actively involved in the EU Global Gateway flagship initiative, the Regional Teachers’ Initiative in and for Africa (RTIA). The goal is to enhance learning outcomes and socio-emotional development of children in Sub-Saharan Africa by cultivating a skilled, motivated, and inclusive teacher workforce in basic education. Belgium has allocated additional funding to this initiative
through the Teach2Empower project. Teach2Empower aims to equip children and youth in Africa to become critical, responsible, and active citizens in green, digital, and gender-equal societies by enhancing teachers’ capacity for transformative education.
Opportunity-driven Vocational Education and Training (OP-VET)
Opportunity-driven Skills and Vocational Education and Training seeks to shift the paradigm of Vocational Education and Training (VET) by aligning it with actual employment prospects arising from investments, trade, and market dynamics. Unlike reforming entire VET systems, OP-VET tailors solutions to address specific challenges. It aims to stimulate local job creation, foster inclusive economic growth, and promote decent job opportunities. European Union investments in African countries can notably advance these goals, boosting local value addition.
Strengthening the education and training system
We strive for sustainable improvements in the education and training system by strengthening the capacities of educational institutions and empowering them to design effective policies. We work closely with partner ministries and local stakeholders to support policy formulation and enhance monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. Our initiatives include implementing results-based planning and budgeting practices and optimizing financial management within the eucation and training sector.
Decent work assessment
To measure and improve the impact of our efforts on employment quality, we’ve partnered with HIVA- KULEUVEN to create a Decent Work Assessment (DWA) tool. This instrument provides valuable insights into the progress of decent work standards among Enabel’s beneficiaries. The DWA systematically evaluates working conditions at the individual worker level in specific companies or sectors. It’s designed for structured assessments, considering project time and budget constraints.
Our experience
In the DR Congo
Under the governmental cooperation programme, Belgium supports basic education across 3 provinces,
targeting more than 350,000 students and 2,600 teachers and education staff.
In Rwanda
More than 2,200 workers in construction and mining have passed the test for the recognition of prior
learning. This certification puts them in a better position to negotiate better wages. The workers are supported in the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) at company level to offer employment contracts and fair wages. More than 20 CBAs are being negotiated with mining companies. 33 labour inspectors have been trained and 2,000 labour inspections were conducted.
In Guinea
In Uganda
84 secondary schools in 5 districts will be supported, reaching over 1,000 local communities.
Training of over 2,000 teachers, head teachers, and other education staff. Each year a minimum of 40,000 lower secondary school students will benefit from improved access to quality education, with a particular focus on vulnerable youth.
Related content
Sub-Saharan Africa faces a significant skills mismatch. This Team Europe Initiative addresses this by focusing on opportunity-driven skills and vocational training.
A New Gateway to Skills
Enabel is dedicated to fostering resilient and inclusive education, training, and employment ecosystems and to promoting sustainable socio-economic growth that leaves no one behind. Learn more in our brochure.
Thematic brochure
Job creation, workers’ rights, social protection and social dialogue: in the Great Lakes region, we are implementing a series of projects dedicated exclusively to achieving these objectives.
Decent work for better social protection
Social, political and economic reasons drive people away in search of a better life. In Guinea, Enabel works with young unemployed Guineans and Guinean migrants who have returned to their homeland.
The road to work
News & Events
12 June 2026
Enabling young Karimojong women to sustainably diversify their income is the key to addressing challenges in Karamoja
Merel Meersman worked as a Junior Expert with Enabel in Uganda. As part of her world citizenship education trajectory she worked on a research project exploring how climate change exacerbates inequality, poverty, gender issues and migration.
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News
10 June 2026
Between ideals and systems
Théodore worked as a Junior Expert for Rikolto in Senegal, with farmers, financial institutions and private actors. He experienced how fragile progress can be and how essential long-term collaboration is.
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Resources
3 June 2026
Junior Programme – Annual Reports 2023-2025
This page brings together the annual reports of the Junior Programme 4 for the years 2023, 2024 and 2025.
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News
29 May 2026
Investing in education is investing in democracy and peace
When conflict disrupts learning, entire generations are left behind. Educaid.be 2026 conference shows why investing in education means investing in peace.
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News
19 May 2026
Practitioners’ Network General Assembly marks the end of a successful Enabel and Sida co-Presidency
Enabel and Sida hand over Practitioners’ Network co-Presidency to GIZ and CzDA, strengthening European international cooperation.
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News
13 May 2026
New board of directors at Enabel to strengthen the strategic role of international cooperation
Enabel, the Belgian state-owned enterprise for international cooperation, announces the appointment of its new board of directors.
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