FHI 360 received a new, three-year award from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) to improve the quality and relevance of lower secondary education in Guatemala. Through the Secondary Quality Improvement Program, FHI 360 will work in partnership with the Government of Guatemala’s National Competitiveness Program (PRONACOM) and the Ministry of Education to support lower secondary schools in five regions across the country to ensure that youth complete secondary education and are well prepared for the labor market. The FHI 360 program is a subcomponent of MCC’s US$28 million Threshold Program in Guatemala, an objective of which is to provide youth with the skills they need to increase their employability.

More than 2 million Guatemalan youth ages 15 to 29 are no longer in school and have failed to complete lower secondary school, according to FHI 360’s analysis of the country’s 2015 Demographic and Health Survey. In 2014, approximately 54,000 youth dropped out of lower secondary school.

To address these challenges, FHI 360 and the Government of Guatemala will use FHI 360’s systems approach to promote collaboration, communication and coordination throughout the country’s education system, focusing on the national and departmental levels. The program’s interventions will have three main components:

• To improve teaching quality by strengthening teacher training programs, providing training in innovative active-learning methodologies that emphasize student-centered learning and supporting the professionalization of pedagogical and school management advisors within the Ministry of Education
• To develop education networks, composed of students, teachers, principals and families, to increase community support for education and improve students’ transition between education levels
• To provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Education to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of its information systems; build its capacity to use evidence-based decisionmaking to plan and budget for the equitable provision of secondary education; and support the institutionalization of its reforms at the national, departmental and municipal levels

FHI 360 has more than three decades of experience in supporting the Government of Guatemala across multiple sectors, as well as an extensive portfolio of expertise in supporting basic education reforms and postsecondary education system strengthening across Latin America and the Caribbean. Our staff have supported several successful basic education programs in Guatemala. We are currently implementing a youth workforce program designed to strengthen two-year, postsecondary technical degree programs that equip Guatemalan students with skills that are in demand in the labor market.

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