This training session is organized by UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in Bangkok with generous funding and support from Educate a Child (EAC) to enhance the capacity of government officials to effectively design and implement innovative education programmes for OOSC by inspiring and empowering participants with the potential of design thinking to help generate new solutions to the challenges of OOSC.

The training involves approximately 100 participants; 40 participants from ASEAN and East Asian countries, including Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam, Mongolia and China, 33 national and provincial/district-level government officials currently in charge of educational programmes for OOSC or any disadvantaged children, to learn more about how OOSC-related issues are dealt with in other countries, how innovation can help to provide these children with education and how participants might be able to apply lessons to their own contexts.

UNESCO Bangkok has begun implementing the Strengthening Education Systems for Out-of-School Children project to assist Southeast Asian countries that continue to face challenges in addressing the educational needs of OOSC. The main goal of the project is to enhance the target countries’ institutional capacities and education systems in order to better address the educational needs of OOSC, regardless of their nationality and ethnicity, by utilizing flexible learning strategies (FLS) across contexts. This project has been expanded to include all Asian sub-regions, with the objective of increasing collaboration and cohesion of efforts for FLS and OOSC across Asia.

Four strategies have been incorporated into this project, including research, regional policy advocacy, regional capacity building, and flexible learning strategies.
The main objective is to orient participants in OOSC-related issues in education and design thinking. participants are expected to
- Better understand various issues of OOSC across the region
- Demonstrate through inspirational examples on how design thinking can create new solutions across in any situations
- Familiarize participants with the design thinking mindset and principles and establish the strategic design thinking process to produce a plan for approaches.