Providing Real Alternatives for Youth

SAN PEDRO SULA - Ambassador Lisa Kubiske visited the Padre Claret Outreach Center in San Pedro Sula, where youth can practice sports and arts and receive academic and job training, away from gangs, youth violence, and drugs. The centers also provide academic and job skills training to help youth acquire employment skills, and improve their academic performance in school and reduce school drop-outs.

The outreach center is part of a program financed by the US government through Alianza Joven Regional USAID-SICA, in partnership with the Catholic Church. The U.S. has helped finance and operate other outreach centers in Tegucigalpa and on the Honduran north coast in La Ceiba, Chamelecon, Choloma, San Pedro Sula, and Puerto Lempira..

The Ambassador also toured the Instituto Politecnico Centroamericano (IPC), a vocational educational institution financed and equipped by the U.S. government at a cost of about $1 million in the early 1990s. The IPC is the most renowned industry-driven training institution in Honduras.

The IPC also has a strong representation on the Board of Directors from the private sector. It has been able to secure alliances with more advanced education and training institutions from the private sector in Indonesia, Italy, Switzerland, the United States and Canada. These alliances have allowed the IPC to develop the most up-to-date training curricula in the country, which meets direct needs from the industry sector. In 2008, the U.S., through USAID, also financed a pilot program to develop curricula in specific industry sectors. The pilot program later became part of the IPC’s regular curriculum.

The U.S. government also financed the expansion of IPC’s program to vocational centers in Choloma and El Mochito, upgrading their curriculum for improved middle school, high school, and young adult basic education skills. This program served as the basis for USAID’s newly developed program METAS.

For more information on the METAS project, visit: http://proyectometas.org/