GOPA has already been doing pioneering work in Guatemala in the field of vocational education and training. Currently, we have designed – and are already implementing – 3-year, secondary VET courses (“peritos"), on behalf of the Ministry of Education. The competency-based VET curricula are focusing for the first time on the labour market: the six new VET courses concentrate on three main areas – tourism & hospitality, ICT and auto mechanics.

GOPA's Health & Social Development has recently been contracted to provide “COVID-19 Response e-Training for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) and Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs)” in States of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan and West Bengal, funded by GIZ. With our Indian partner, TRIOs, as lead, we will deliver online training modules to strengthen capacities of SME employees, as well as ITI teachers, trainers and instructors, in minimising the risk of workplace Covid-19 spread.

The “Youth Employment Project (YEP)", which began in October 2008, has recently received a two-year extension up to March 2022. The objective of YEP's extended phase is to further strengthen and contribute to the Impakt Investment Foundation (IIF)'s sustainability. Being a spin-off of YEP's project and now the beneficiary of the extended phase, IIF aims at strengthening support systems for entrepreneurship, increasing the number and competences of new entrepreneurs and enhancing the environment for new start-ups and SMEs in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

GOPA’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning team is pleased to announce that we have been awarded Framework Contracts for GIZ’ Central Project Evaluations (CPEs), running over the next two years.

CPEs for BMZ Business account for the majority of GIZ evaluations. They focus on worldwide initiatives implemented by GIZ in order to support partners' change projects, or to address sectoral and global development issues in cooperation arrangements.