Guatemala

Projects

Nuevas Oportunidades: productive reintegration of returned migrants

The project seeks the economic reintegration of returned migrants. It enables returned migrants to certify the skills they have acquired in the United States or Mexico. After certification, they are supported in finding a job or starting their own business.

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Accelerating the Guatemalan Entrepreneurial Ecosystem

The project fosters the development of the entrepreneurial ecosystem, actively collaborating with entrepreneurs, Entrepreneurship Support Organsations (ESOs) and the public sector to develop and move forward tools and interventions that promote collaboration, specialization of ESOs and better access of services and resources for entrepreneurs. The project seeks the capacities of Entreprenruship Support Organisations, entrepreneurs and the private and public sector to co-design and implement interventions to improve the local entrepreneurial ecosystem.

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Economic Empowerment of Indigenous Youth and Women

The Project will improve the living conditions of indigenous men and women between the ages of 15 and 35 years, so that they can increase their income and improve their capabilities as well as improving the current conditions for autonomous decision-making; gaining access to professional technical education and market insertion opportunities; it...

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Innova

Disadvantaged young adults will be able to successfully enter professional life through solid, high-quality training. In this way they will generate income for themselves and their families, freeing themselves from poverty on their own initiative.Young men and women are learning important technical skills in vocational training. Since the project...

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Expert Consulting Services, SEC Guatemala

Although small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Guatemala account for 85% of the total job market, they only represent 35% of the GDP. There are many factors that prevent SMEs from being more productive: low levels of education, lack of access to financing and information on markets, insufficient capabilities in business management and a lack of support for entrepreneurs. Improving entrepreneur’s performance and increasing their participation in local and global markets could have very positive results for the entire economy.

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News

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07.11.2022

Grupo Los de Aquí - Lacteos Chicacsi, Guatemala: For the love of cheese

“It’s the love that makes this company special,” smiles Maria Alejandra Grotewold, Administrative Manager of the 32-year old cheesemaking company in Guatemala set up by her father in 1990. Read the story in the annual report of the Argidius Foundation.

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29.09.2022

Key Learnings and Recommendations of the Credit Suisse – Swisscontact initiative

What are the key components of successful entrepreneurial ecosystems?

And how do you influence and measure them?In 2018, Swisscontact embarked on a journey with the Credit Suisse Foundation and a group of local partners with the aim of contributing to creating better conditions for opportunity-driven entrepreneurs in developing and emerging economies.

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21.09.2022

Accrediting vocational skills to facilitate labour market integration

Vocational training and continuing education have been among Swisscontact’s main areas of focus for a long time. For such projects, the standard is for acquired skills to be certified so that people have a better chance at finding their way in the job market. In developing countries and emerging economies, many people do have the requisite vocational skills, but they do not have a document attesting to this experience. Swisscontact is engaged in various projects and initiatives for the accreditation and certification of vocational skills.

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Country Director Guatemala

Carlos Morales

Interventions

In Guatemala, Swisscontact has implemented projects in different areas such as vocational education and training, retraining and reskilling, labour market insertion, development of "Guatemalan Entrepreneurial Ecosystems" and recently on issues related to Green Cities, such as solid waste management. We partner with the public and private sector, universities and academia, cooperatives, rural and farmers associations. We facilitate access to financial services such as seed capital. We strengthen relationships with institutions (business incubators, startup accelerators) for entrepreneurship and new ventures, targeting the most vulnerable minority groups such as indigenous communities, women, youth and returned migrants.

Additional news and content on the spanish version of this page

Latin America Regional Report 2021

In 2021, Swisscontact Latin America continued to strengthen synergies with the private and public sectors with the aim of achieving more equal, inclusive and resilient societies that are able to meet the challenges and difficulties facing the region.

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