Inequality in building foundational skills
Although gender parity in primary education has increased in most parts of the world, progress has been slowest in low-income countries. Even when children are in school, not enough of them develop the basic foundational skills required for later learning and transitioning to the workplace. Globally, only 40% of young people meet minimum proficiency standards in reading and mathematics; this drops to 19% in Central and South Asia and 12% in Sub-Saharan Africa, and girls perform worse than boys overall.
Disparities in developing core competencies
In low-resource contexts where poverty and gender inequalities intersect, structural differences in the life paths of boys and girls mean that they have different experiences of transitioning through education systems and into work. Girls and young women in particular encounter multiple gendered barriers that take a heavy toll on their transition into work. Consequently, a higher proportion of young women are not in employment, education, or training (NEET) - in Ethiopia, Malawi, and Uganda, for example, the chances of young women aged 20–24 being NEET are 20% higher than they are for men.
Results from large-scale employment surveys in lower- and middle-income countries suggest that young people who develop a range of core competencies (mainly foundational, transferable, digital, technical, and vocational skills) are better equipped to secure, retain, and thrive in work. However, girls and young women face a number of gender-related barriers to education, along with disparities in labour force participation, and this prevents them from developing these core competencies. Girls and young women have lower rates of access to and participation in school, fewer qualifications, a higher drop-out risk, and fewer opportunities to participate in technical and vocational training.
Gender norms and discrimination
Adolescent girls (especially those from rural areas and the poorest households) are often marginalised and underperform in the core social and emotional skills related to empowerment, such as self-efficacy and agency. Teenage pregnancy and early marriage, exposure to violence, financial insecurity, social isolation, an unequal burden of unpaid care work, and limited access to affordable childcare also increase the likelihood of women becoming NEET. Even when young women and girls do transition to higher education, limited access to labour market information and discriminatory gender norms discourage them from pursuing STEM subjects, which are better paying but traditionally perceived to be the preserve of men.
All these factors have a detrimental and long-lasting impact on the lifetime earnings trajectory, social mobility, and wellbeing of girls and young women living in poverty. The educational, social, and economic exclusion they face is reinforced by their relative lack of access to technology – for example, only 30% of young women in Tanzania use the internet or own a smartphone.
Interventions that support girls' transitions
Based on the evidence we have found, and impact data from programmes, we have identified a range of interventions that can support disadvantaged girls at each stage of their transitions through school and onwards into higher education or work.
1. Enabling girls to stay in school
One solution is to enable girls to stay in school for longer, by empowering them to learn and incentivising their families to delay their marriages: Programmes in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Liberia, and Tanzania that encouraged delayed marriage, reduced teenage childbearing, and kept girls in school for longer, for example, had a strong positive impact on their educational achievements and economic outcomes. Meanwhile, the Fireflight Foundation programme in Rwanda successfully built up the financial, physical, personal, and social assets of out-of-school girls, which gave them the opportunity to re-enrol, complete their education, and transition into the workplace.
2. An integrated approach to education and skills training
Interventions that provide vocational skills training or tutoring in English and mathematics have enabled disadvantaged girls to develop some of the foundational skills required for transitioning to higher education or work. Furthermore, multi-sectoral programmes aimed at developing a range of different skills simultaneously – such as combining academic tutoring with life skills training, or technical training with financial literacy – have been shown to be more effective than vocational training schemes alone. This demonstrates that taking an integrated approach to supporting girls to develop their competencies can increase their social autonomy and ability to earn an income.
We also found that programmes that combined skills training with work experience or on-the-job internships positively impacted girls’ transitions into work. For example, young women who completed the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project, which combined skills development with work placements, increased their likelihood of being employed afterwards by 8.7%.
3. Building girls' knowledge of finance and technology
Programmes that tackle the gender gap in the areas of technology and finance have also produced promising results. While most jobs in low-income contexts have a digital component, girls lag behind boys in terms of technological know-how. Therefore, interventions that integrate ICT training with other skills and work experience can enable girls to build their confidence and earning capacity in an increasingly digital world. In addition, in an environment where most banking institutions are unwilling to give young people credit, providing girls with access to youth-friendly micro-financing opportunities can empower them to start and grow their own businesses.
4. Attracting girls to traditionally male-dominated sectors
We found that, in low-resource contexts, girls frequently choose training courses in female-dominated occupations such as hospitality or hairdressing, which tend to be poorly paid and oversaturated with workers. Interventions that attract girls into sectors where they are traditionally under-represented – including construction, security, engineering, and firefighting – can enhance their chances of securing employment and earn higher income. A lot of girls are unaware of alternative work opportunities, so giving them access to information about the labour market can be an effective way of improving their earning potential. Integrating workforce readiness and entrepreneurship training into the school curriculum has also been shown to improve a girl’s chances of finding a job, earning an income, or being able to start her own business.
In our literature review, we pointed to a number of promising interventions that support girls’ transitions to higher education and employment, and highlighted some key lessons for policymakers such as the need for careers counselling for girls and affordable childcare provision.
We also identified a clear need for a coherent strategy and an integrated approach to tackling this area of gender inequality because, as in all areas of government policy and reform, the development of individual programmes often results in a disconnected collection of separate solutions. This is particularly true in the complex area of transition – so even if girls make progress in the early stages, barriers that are not addressed can easily hinder them further down the line.
We now plan to build on what we have learned by collecting primary data to inform the development of a model for supporting girls transitions across the education system and onwards into work, to bring about lasting change.
Read the full literature review on supporting girls’ transitions from school to higher education and work here.
Find out more about our work in girls’ education here.
