Afghan Secure Futures (ASF)

Background: The Afghan Secure Futures project (ASF) focused on helping vulnerable children and youth through improved apprenticeships with workshops in the constructionAfghanistan 037 trade.
The project worked on two levels, supporting both workshops and apprentices. Workshops received business development services, improved financial access and opportunities to network with peers. Apprentices participated in literacy and numeracy classes outside their working hours.
Together, these activities provide working youth with a richer apprenticeship experience which provides greater opportunities to learn valuable skill sets, increasing their current income and future employability. Supporting youth in pathways to a secure future through economic advancement is crucial to Afghanistan's reconstruction.
To date, the completion of this project has produced the following four publications:
Supplementary Literacy and Numeracy for Apprentices
Success Story – Apprentices Learn and Earn in Afghanistan
LWA STRIVE Project Activity Brief
Leveraging Apprenticeships to Reach and Benefit Vulnerable Youth
Project Goals: The ASF project had two main goals: 1) Increase the number and diversity of contracts for micro and small enterprises working within the construction sector and employing youth apprentices; and 2) Improve working conditions and learning opportunities for apprentices.
Reach: 363 workshops and 1080 apprentices reached, with intensive impact (workshops and apprentices who benefited from multiple interventions) on approximately one third of these.
Funder: Displaced Children and Orphans Fund (DCOF); United States Agency for International Development (USAID)