The challenge

The cost of a young woman’s university education and related expenses in the Philippines can sometimes be the equivalent of a full year of her family’s income. As a result, a large majority of young women remain unable to pursue higher education – indeed, only 30% enroll in college.

With their options severely limited by a lack of higher education, these young women often end up working in  harmful, precarious conditions in order to help sustain their families' needs, undertaking work that exposes them to a heightened risk of abuse, exploitation, and sex trafficking.

But what if there were an affordable alternative to higher education for these young women?

The solutions we're proposing 

A career in IT is proving to be one such viable alternative for poor young women of the Philippines’ Visayan Islands. Since 2009, W4's field program, Passerelles numériques Philippines, has been granting hands-on training in Systems & Network Administration and Software Development to some of the area’s most impoverished young women.

At its center in Cebu City, students follow a program tailored to ensure every graduate's employability. Here, the students are taught the theory and gain the knowledge they need in order to excel in IT-related fields and benefit from the hands-on experience required to transform the theory and knowledge into practice.

The program allows them to gain advanced skills that can be directly applied in the context of their future places of employment through extensive technical education, English courses, and guidance in professional behavior and personal development, including workplace etiquette, soft skills, time management, etc.

The impact of giving

As the technology sector continues to boom in the Philippines, graduates of this program are able to find safe employment and earn a higher-than-average starting salary, a large part of which they reinvest into their families (for example, helping to pay for their siblings’ education), raising the quality of life for all of their family members and inspiring their younger siblings to strive for similar success.

Your vital support will enable more young women to secure reliable employment, transform their lives, improve the wellbeing of their families and make a positive contribution to their communities!