Educator activism still matters: Lessons from targeting funding towards more inclusive skills development and labour markets in the Eastern Caribbean

• In Event: Centering Youths' Perspectives and Experiences in Policy and Social Justice

Proposal

The paper explores the critical role that education activists continue to play within the micro-politics of education delivery, through individual agency, decisions to act in the interests of disadvantaged young people, and to mitigate multiple drivers of their exclusion. The paper does this through an examination of a programme of targeted funding deliberately designed to deliver more inclusive vocational and technical training, and more equitable employment outcomes for disadvantaged youth. Whilst the programme’s quantitative results demonstrate the effectiveness of targeted financing, interviews with training instructors and managers reveal the limits of strategy and the extent to which better futures for young people still rely on educator activism within contexts of multiple disadvantage.
The paper will discuss evidence built through the Skills for Youth Employment (SkYE) programme in the Eastern Caribbean which was a five-year programme implemented from 2019 to 2023, and funded by the UK Government and national stakeholders in four countries; Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The SkYE programme was established to contribute to more inclusive economic growth by ensuring access to certified, market-relevant training for young people from disadvantaged communities, and young people with disabilities. The decision to invest in more inclusive skills development was driven by economic rationale, with targets set to ensure swift return on investment through improved enterprise productivity, increased employment rates, and increased incomes.
From the outset, the SkYE programme was intentionally designed to mainstream inclusion in technical and vocational training and address the ongoing exclusion of specific groups of young people from employment opportunities, namely disadvantaged youth and young people with disabilities.
Mainstreaming inclusion within the vocational and technical training system is at an early phase of development in the Eastern Caribbean. SkYE’s strategy therefore directed funding towards training providers with sufficient institutional capacity to include young people with disabilities, and to scale provision to more youth from disadvantaged homes. Providers were identified through institutional mapping and capacity assessment, with selection dependent on capacity to deliver foundational education, employability skills development and vocational training.
Finally, the targeting strategy ensured that trainees gained access to high quality skills relevant to their local labour market. SkYE carried out detailed labour market analysis in each of the four countries, working with employers to identify economic sectors and sub-sectors with growth potential, and skills in short supply. The programme only funded training in these areas of skill, and only training leading to recognised qualifications. All funding included performance targets for the enrolment and certification of young people with disabilities, and from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Training providers also received funding for targeted strategies to address barriers to access, retention, and achievement in training. Strategies were agreed during co-creation of the project funded, and dependent on specific contextual needs relating to the training provider, training course and trainee backgrounds (gender, types of disability, and socio-economic background). Strategies could be combined within grant projects, and in flexible ways. Funding included outreach, transport, stipends, specialist instructors, day care for young children, adapted equipment.
With funding, training providers across all four countries achieved impressive results. Training was delivered to over 6000 young people, with a certification rate of 83%. Young people with disabilities experienced slightly lower certification rates. However, certified graduates with disabilities enjoyed similar employment outcomes to their peers. Tracer studies carried out 3 to 6 months after training found that 54% of SkYE certificated graduates were employed, and 55% of certificated SkYE graduates with disabilities employed.
The multi-layered, targeted funding strategy offers only a partial explanation for the programme’s results. Conversations with training providers when monitoring funded projects and post-project interviews provide evidence that educator agency was instrumental in ensuring that equitable outcomes were achieved. The paper will illustrate this through two types of educator-activism and solidarity.
Disability activists as partners: In all four nations, the national disability organisation became a valued partner in the delivery of inclusive training. Disability activists provided advice on developing effective strategies to reach and engage young people with disabilities. The organisations also became ‘mobilisation partners’, with many young people commenting they had enrolled following advice and support from members of a disability organisation. Activists also provided advice about how to engage employers and raise awareness about people with disabilities within their workforce, and on issues to consider during work placement, internships, and recruitment.
Educator activists: The vital role of instructors who ‘went out of their way’ was a dominant theme across interviews with successful graduates. Many students described how instructors had actively sustained them through challenges that would otherwise have caused them to drop out. These instructors gave of their own time and resources to provide extra coaching and lessons, visit students in remote centres, and on work placements; providing psycho-social support to young people in crisis; and transporting them to work placements.
The paper will consider how these experiences reveal complex ways that economic, social and geographic conditions intersect and perpetuate exclusion, even with strategic, targeted financing to support inclusion. Through individual agency, and 'everyday' activism, educator activists still make a difference to whether young people remain and succeed in training or not. In future programming, we may wish to consider how we can deliver more support to educators, offering greater solidarity, and requiring less personal sacrifice.

Author

• Rosemary Anne Lugg, Mott MacDonald