Education in the work of IPEC

Education has been central to the work of IPEC since its creation in 1992 and is instrumental in developing and implementing measures to prevent child labour, remove children from hazardous work, provide for their rehabilitation and social reintegration and offer alternatives for them, their families and the wider community. History has shown how instrumental education has been to the abolition of child labour, establishing a skilled workforce and promoting development based on principles of social justice.

The ILO is promoting the Education For All initiative (EFA) in the context of its decent work campaign, not only as means to combat child labour, but also as part of its work to develop vocational and skills training, to promote the status of teachers and to uphold their individual rights and the rights of their organizations. Through both global technical cooperation and policy dialogue, IPEC aims to influence national education policies so that education systems prevent children from being drawn prematurely into labour and are more responsive to the needs of children released from hazardous work.

In the pages that follow, IPEC explains its work in the related fields of education and skills training and provides critical links to partners and stakeholders in these areas. Partnerships and alliances are a vital component of the global joint strategy to eliminate child labour and achieve the Millennium Development Goal of Universal Primary Education by 2015 and IPEC, as well as implementing its own comprehensive programme, is constantly seeking to mainstream its materials, approaches and strategies within the framework of existing and ongoing education-related initiatives that seek to protect children and support their full development and fulfilment in life.