Youth Development Program

Fabretto’s Youth Development program seeks to prepare Central American youth to thrive through courses that combine academic and technical skills, personal development, and community service. We do this through:

• CaTec: Youth Technical Training (Modelo CaTec – Capacidades Técnicas): We build youth skills in agricultural and economic development in rural communities, through our signature CaTec training program. The program strengthens students’ capabilities in communication, logical reasoning, personal development and community service. After identifying communities alongside our partners, we train local facilitators, share curricula and materials, and provide technical-pedagogical support. Currently, we offer in-person and b-learning courses in topics like: Holistic Farm Management (MIPA for its initials in Spanish, foundational agriculture course), Coffee Production, Animal Husbandry, and Youth Entrepreneurship, among others.
• Fabretto Innova: Fabretto Innova is a program that seeks to inspire youth and educators in Central America to become leaders of innovation within their communities. The program trains participants in Design Thinking through different initiatives. Fabretto Innova builds capacity in youth and teachers so that they can develop their own projects and contribute positively to their communities through innovation.
• Youth Entrepreneurship: Fabretto trains youth in the principles of entrepreneurship and guides them from ideas through launching their own businesses in their communities. We also organize the Fabretto “Entrepreneurship Challenge” and fairs to support youth entrepreneurs.
• Rural Secondary Education: Fabretto advocates for access to secondary education (7th to 12th grade) in rural Central America, where typically fewer than 1 in 5 students can continue their education beyond the 6th grade. We work alongside local partners to promote, expand, and strengthen alternative models of education that improve access to education, with a particular focus on the SAT (Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial) model and programs like HEY (Holistic Education for Youth) that promote gender equity.

Highlighted Projects

Strengthening the Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial Program

• Partners: BAYAN
• Country: Honduras
• Location: 10 Departments of Honduras
• Dates: 2022 to present
• Reach: 6,300 youth

Fabretto is collaborating with our impact partner Asociación BAYAN to strengthen the innovative rural secondary education program, Sistema de Aprendizaje Tutorial (SAT), and a complementary gender equality program, called HEY!. This project has received financial support from donors that include The Inter-American Foundation, The International Community Foundation, The Journey Charitable Foundation, The International Foundation, and The Mortenson Family Foundation.

COMPONENT 1: STEM LEARNING, TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION & ENTREPRENEURSHIP SKILLS – RESULTS 2022-2025:

• 41 schools equipped with digital learning kits
• More than 150 teachers trained in digital learning using the offline-first platform, Kolibri
• 56 mobile laboratory kits distributed for science learning
• 96 youth trained through a b-learning entrepreneurship course
• 17 youth-led businesses created

COMPONENT 2: GENDER EQUALITY PROGRAM – RESULTS TO DATE:

• 78 teachers and volunteers trained in the HEY! Methodology
• Expansion of HEY! to three new departments of Honduras
• Exploration of scaling up the project across Honduras and Central America with other partners

COMPONENT 3: INSTITUTIONAL STRENGTHENING – RESULTS TO DATE:

• Custom database co-designed with BAYAN
• 50 team members participated in monitoring and evaluation trainings
• 1 regional event, “Encuentro SAT 2024”, organized with participation from public, private and NGO sectors

CaTec: Agricultural Training for Rural Central American Youth

• Partners: ACOES, Educate2Envision (E2E)
• Country: Honduras
• Location: Departments of Francisco Morazán, La Paz, Comayagua, and El Paraiso
• Reach: 300 youth

CaTec is Fabretto’s learning-by-doing approach to technical training for rural youth. Through hands-on activities led by a trained facilitator and grounded in the rural environment, CaTec builds technical skills while also strengthening foundational literacy and mathematics skills, as well as social emotional development and orientation to service. Fabretto prioritizes promoting the participation of girls and young women in CaTec, in communities where typically girls do not enroll in agricultural education programs. Currently, Fabretto offers this program to youth who are enrolled in the Honduran radio education program through our partners ACOES and E2E. Donors have included: The Pulte Family Foundation, The International Community Foundation, The Mortenson Family Foundation, and The Patricia Price Peterson Foundation.

RESULTS TO DATE:

• In 2025, more than 300 youth have enrolled in CaTec farm management, coffee production, animal husbandry, and rural entrepreneurship courses.
• Annual 95% retention rate, a significant achievement in a context in which typically at least 30% of youth do not complete the alternative secondary education course each year.
• 11 communities with active productive initiatives, created and managed by CaTec students.

Donate today to support this transformational youth development program.