Save the Children

Entrepreneurship-Focused Socio-Emotional Skills For The Most Vulnerable Youth In Rural Mongolia

Save the Children is now implementing a 4-year project, Entrepreneurship-Focused Socio-Emotional Skills For The Most Vulnerable Youth In Rural Mongolia in 25 soums of Khovd, Zavkhan, Uvurkhangai, Govi-Sumber, Sukhbaatar provinces of Mongolia. This project is funded by the Japan Social Development Fund, a World Bank Group Trust Fund.

Despite increased educational attainment in Mongolia, the country ranks 130th out of 187 countries in terms of skilled labor. In particular, adolescents and young people face significant challenges due to the lack of job opportunities and skills in rural areas. The project addresses this by providing target young people with socio-emotional skills and entrepreneurship education that are in high demand in today's labour market.

Project objectives:

  • To develop an innovative curriculum for individual skills and entrepreneurship education with the participation of adolescents and youth, and implement them in cooperation with local secondary schools and Lifelong Education Centres.
  • To fund micro-projects developed by children and youth to support them to put their knowledge and skills into practice; and to to provide them with mentoring, counselling and experience-sharing support.
  • To strengthen local partnerships to bolster effective project implementation and sustainability, disseminate project best practices to other communities through advocacy and community campaigns, and strengthen the policy environment that supports entrepreneurship education.

Target group:

25 soums of Khovd, Zavkhan, Uvurkhangai, Govisumber, and Sukhbaatar aimags, representing the western, eastern, central, and Khangai regions of Mongolia with complete secondary education and high rates of poverty and unemployment.

  • 6,000 children and youth aged 14-24
  • 20,000 soum residents

Project activities:

Respective memorandums of understanding were signed with the Governors of Khovd, Zavkhan, Uvurkhangai, and Govisumber aimags where the Entrepreneurship-focused socio-emotional skills for the most vulnerable youth in rural Mongolia project is being implemented.

Moreover, memorandums of understanding were signed, and areas of cooperation identified, with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Science and Sport (MECSS) and the Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry to provide personal skills and entrepreneurship education to youth in rural areas.