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Young mothers: what the programme can offer you, and what it cannot
One in five Dominican girls aged 15 to 19 is a mother or pregnant. This article is for them: what the programme gives you, what it does not yet, and how to decide.
Start with who is left out
When you count the young Dominicans who neither study nor work, the result surprises anyone who has not seen it: of the 309,611 young people aged 15 to 24 in that situation in 2022, 197,702 were women. Almost two in three.
The World Bank studied the phenomenon across Latin America and found the same face: the typical person out of school and out of work is not the boy on the corner, but a young woman without a completed secondary diploma. And the door she leaves the system through is usually the same: an early union, a pregnancy, or both.
1 in 5
- Dominican girls aged 15 to 19 is already a mother or is pregnant. The adolescent fertility rate is 77 births per 1,000.
32%
- Of women aged 20 to 24 were married or in a union before 18. Among the poorest, 49%.
16,481
- Adolescent pregnancies registered in 2025: one in five of all pregnancies in the country. The figure has been falling by about 40% in four years, and it is still high.
47%
- Of Latin American women outside the labour market say the reason is caring for others. In North America, 19%.
Source: ONE, ENCFT 2022 and ENHOGAR-MICS 2019; ONE, adolescent pregnancy statistics 2025; UNICEF Dominican Republic; ILO, The impact of care responsibilities on women's labour force participation, 2025; World Bank, Out of School and Out of Work: Latin America's Ninis, 2016.
And after the pregnancy, work
Being a young mother does not only end school; it often closes off work too. In the Dominican Republic, unemployment among women is 7.9%, against 2.9% among men. Counting also those who work fewer hours than they want or have stopped looking, female underutilisation reaches 18.1%.
In the Samaná region the starting point is somewhat better than in the rest of the country: the share of adolescents who had ever been pregnant in Cibao Nordeste was 16.3%, the lowest of the regions, against 38.5% in Enriquillo. It is good news with a limit: one in six is still one in six.
Source: Central Bank of the Dominican Republic, Quarterly Labour Market Bulletin, January–March 2025; UNFPA Dominican Republic, 2016.
What training changes
There is a Dominican figure worth knowing. When the Juventud y Empleo programme was evaluated with a lottery among applicants, female participants aged 16 to 19 had five percentage points fewer pregnancies than those left out: 45% fewer. The authors attribute it to a change in expectations about their own future. A young woman with a concrete plan for the following year makes her decisions from a different place.
That mechanism is the one this programme tries to set in motion. Not with a talk, but with a trade, an internship in a real company and a life project written by you.
Source: Ibarrarán, Ripani, Taboada, Villa and García, IZA Journal of Labor & Development, 2014.
What the programme offers you
A trade in demand all year round
- Nine local tourism trades, in a sector with a strong female presence.
Free and close by
- Twelve weeks at no cost, at Sienna Village, ten minutes from Las Terrenas.
A selection that looks at your situation
- The interview lasts 30 minutes, in person or by video call. Your family circumstances and the people in your care are part of that conversation, not a reason to keep quiet.
Real support
- Groups of no more than 12, one-to-one sessions on your life project and six months of follow-up after graduation.
No entry requirements
- No experience, no English, no CV. Be between 18 and 22 and live in Las Terrenas.
What the programme does not offer you, yet
We would rather say it before you apply than after.
There is no nursery
- We have no childcare service. Who looks after your child Monday to Friday for twelve weeks is the first question to settle.
The schedule is not flexible
- The first four weeks require full-time dedication. After that, three days in a company and two in class. It is what makes the training work, and it does not change case by case.
Tourism shifts are what they are
- In food and beverage you work weekends. In hospitality, rotating shifts. In local tourism, weekends, public holidays and the season. Choose your specialisation knowing that.
It does not replace an income
- If you need money during those twelve weeks, say so at the interview. It is one of the things that gets talked through before starting, not halfway through.
How to decide
Three questions, in this order. Who looks after your child, with a name and a schedule. How you get to El Jamito every day. And which of the three specialisations fits your life best: hospitality has the clearest promotion ladder and the steadiest season; food and beverage, tips that can double the base pay and busy weekends; local tourism, the best average pay and the option of working for yourself, low season included.
If you have all three answers, apply. If you have two, apply anyway and bring the third to the interview. Many of them get solved by talking.
A direct message
If you are a mother and you are between 18 and 22, this programme is as much yours as anyone's. There is no need to hide your child at the interview. What is needed is a plan for them, and for you. The second part we work out together.