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DOL Home > ILAB > Entrepreneurship Materials > EpE Transitional After-School Program

Espacios para Emprender Transitional After-School Program

Espacios para Emprender (EpE), or Spaces for Entrepreneurship in English, is a transitional after-school program aimed at decreasing child labor in Central and South American countries. The program was created by DevTech Systems, Inc., along with ENTRENA S.A., EDUCA, INTEC, and several NGOs and community-based organizations with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program is designed to equip 14- to 17-year-old adolescents with the strategies required to be able to find a job or establish a micro-enterprise or continue formal education or both work and study.  It is an opportunity to begin again and demonstrate that he or she can continue to learn.

The model is sustainable, low-cost, low-tech, applicable in any setting, and requires no infrastructure, all of which make it easy to administer. EpE is a 450-hour program taught over a 30-week period that trains adolescents in three skill areas:

  1. Life and Leadership Skills (5 modules - 180 hours)
  2. Vocational Job-Entry Skills (variable modules - 180 hours)
  3. Financial and Basic Managerial Skills (10 modules - 90 hours)

The EpE “Vocational Job-Entry Skills” component is developed and implemented in different ways by local partners and contractors to ensure local market relevance.  However, the “Life and Leadership Skills” and “Financial and Basic Managerial Skills” program materials are provided below. All materials are in Spanish.

Life and Leadership Skills: This component, titled “Leadership for the Twenty First Century,” is designed to help participating adolescents discover and maximize their individual skills.

Vocational Job-Entry Skills: In the Dominican Republic, the project has an agreement with the National Professional Skills Training Institute (INFOTEP) under which this institution will provide skills training in, for the most part, CAFTA-related job entry skills, primarily in the tourism, agricultural and IT (call-center, computer repair, etc.) industries.  In Colombia, the project has a similar agreement with SENA, a national professional skills training institute.

Financial and Basic Managerial Skills:In Colombia and the Dominican Republic projects, businessmen and women from the community were recruited to act as “big brothers” or “big sisters” to program participants to impart financial literacy and act as business mentors. In addition, this portion of the program allows parents to take the course along with their children. This may allow the family to start a micro-enterprise, or it may simply help the family better manage its money.