The Youth Employment Programme Decent Work for Youth
Youth Employment at a glance •Currently, some 73.4 million young people are unemployed globally, and the economy will need to create 600 million productive jobs over the next decade in order to absorb the current unemployment levels and to provide employment opportunities to the 40 million labour market entrants each year over the next decade. •Of the estimated 200 million unemployed people in 2012, nearly 40 per cent – or about 75 million – are between 15 and 24 years of age. •In many countries, the unemployment scenario is further aggravated by the work of large numbers of young people in poor quality and low paid jobs with intermittent and insecure work arrangements, including in the informal economy. •More youth are either poor or underemployed: some 228 million young people earn less than US$2 per day. •For many, the transition from school to decent jobs has become a daunting challenge. Currently, young people face lengthy periods of job search, and there is a rising number of youth neither in education, employment or training (NEET). •Among young people there are certain subgroups that cumulate several disadvantages that make it harder for them to find decent work. Specifically, young women and youth from ethnic minorities have more difficulty in securing decent work.
Youth employment a TOP priority
Achieving decent work for young people is a critical element of the progression towards wealthier economies, fairer societies and stronger democracies. Although young people’s energy, ideas, skills and talent are desperately needed, the world is today confronted with the monumental challenge of creating more and better jobs for the large number of youth that are entering the labour market or are struggling to improve their working conditions and life satisfaction. Overcoming youth employment challenges is fundamental – not only creating jobs to the benefit of young people, but also finding decent jobs for those young people who are often under-employed and working in the agriculture sector and in fields or city alleyways of the informal economy. There is a need to break the vicious cycle of poverty, inadequate quality education and training, and poor jobs.
Decent work means better prospects for personal development and social integration, and freedom for people to express their concerns, organize and participate in the decisions that affect their lives. It entails equality of opportunity and treatment for all young women and men.
National priority on youth employment is needed in policy agendas that define specific objectives, targets and measurable results. It is important that agencies in charge of the promotion of decent work for youth have appropriate technical capacity, and an ability to muster political support to ensure implementation and smooth coordination among the different institutions and social partners.
“Time has come to unleash the potential of today’s youth to become tomorrow’s workers, entrepreneurs, citizen and agents of change. Opening up opportunities for young people is a priority on the policy agenda in all regions of the world and for the ILO’s tripartite constituency.” Guy Rider, ILO Director General
The ILO response The ILO has long been active on youth employment issues. Its approaches have evolved over the years in response to the changing economic environment and the needs of young people, from social protection of young workers to youth employment promotion. The goal of providing young people with decent and productive work is part of youth employment resolution adopted by governments, employers’ organizations and trade unions at the 101st International Labour Conference. This resolution affirms that high rates of overall job creation are required to meet the employment needs of young people. They call on policymakers to include employment creation as a major goal of economic policies, while addressing the specific employment problems faced by young people with targeted policies and interventions with a view to improving both quantity and quality of jobs. The resolution “The youth employment crisis: A call for action”, contains an urgent call for action to tackle the unprecedented youth employment crisis through a multi-pronged approach geared to pro-employment growth and decent job creation. The ILO role in responding has been reinforced, as Government, employer and worker representatives of the 185 member States at the 101st International Labour Conference made a strong and urgent Call for Action to tackle the youth employment crisis and to avert a lost generation.
Every year the ILO hosts the International Labour Conference (the ILC) - Often called an international parliament of labour. The Conference establishes and adopts international labour standards and is a forum of discussions on key social and labour questions.
What to focus on? The call for action 1.Employment and economic policies for youth employment Give young people decent work opportunities through employment and economic policies that increase aggregate demand and improve access to finance; It is essential to pursue strong and sustainable economic growth and development that stresses job creation and social inclusion to boost the employability of young people and absorb their skills and talents. 2.Employability – Education, training and skills, and the school-to-work transition Education, training and lifelong learning foster a virtuous cycle of improved employability, higher productivity, income growth and development. Improve youth employability can be done through increasing the relevance and quality of education, training and skills development. This means improving the links between education, training and the
world of work through social dialogue on skills mismatch and standardization of qualifications in response to labour market needs, enhanced technical vocational education and training (TVET), including apprenticeships, 3.Labour market policies Facilitate the entry and re-entry of young people into the labour market through the development and improvement of labour market policies. This will support and encourage work opportunities for young people. 4.Youth entrepreneurship and self-employment An enabling environment for starting and successfully operating a business is essential. Young entrepreneurs face the same challenging business environment as other entrepreneurs. An enabling business environment which helps businesses, cooperatives and social enterprises to thrive can assist in the success of such enterprises that are owned and run by young people. Access to, and the cost of, finance for micro-, small and medium-sized enterprises has deteriorated since the financial crisis and young entrepreneurs are often the least able to access this restricted financing. A critical challenge is to create an enabling business environment for young entrepreneurs. 5.Rights for young people International labour standards play an important role in protecting the rights of young workers. Labour rights should be based on these standards and ensure that young people receive equal treatment and are afforded rights at work.
How we do it? The ILO is dedicated to enhance its capacity in five themes of the call for action and is mobilizing all possible support and partnerships to make progress. The ILO Youth Employment Programme (YEP), under the Employment Policy department, is dedicated towards providing decent work for youth. It operates through a global network of specialists working in the technical departments across the ILO at its head-quarters in Geneva and in more than 60 offices around the world. It provides assistance to countries in developing coherent and coordinated interventions on youth employment. YEP does this through its 3 pillars of work Knowledge building YEP creates regular publications on youth employment statistics and trends of the labour market. YEP has several databases as a response to the need for reliable statistics to provide policy makers and practitioners with information to improve their knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by young people in gaining decent and productive work. “YEP is dedicated to improving knowledge and understanding of the challenges faced by young people�
Youth employment intervention model
Step 1
Data collection and analysis
Step 2
Review policies and institutional frameworks
Policy advice and technical assistance On a national level, YEP assesses the main challenges of youth employment, revises current youth employment policies and programmes and analyses the capabilities of country institutions to foster decent work for youth. YEP helps country institutions who do not have the capabilities to foster decent work for youth by providing workshops and technical assistance to government, employer’s and worker’s organizations to link them to policy development and implementation. Advocacy through building networks and partnerships YEP advocates decent work to policy makers to improve employment policies and programmes. It provides global leadership in the promotion of decent work for youth. In this respect, it establishes strategic alliances and partnerships to place youth employment at the centre of the global development agenda. Through YEP’s 3 pillars of work more young people have access to DECENT WORK. “There has never been a greater need to put youth employment at the centre of economic and social policies”
Step 3
Problem identification, policy options and priorities
Step 4
Development of policies, strategies and programmes
Step 5
Implementation of policies, strategies and programmes
Want to join our network? www.facebook.com/youth.ilo @ILOyouth
Youth Employment Programme International Labour Organization 4, route des Morillons CH -1211 Geneva Switzerland Email: youth@ilo.org Website: www.ilo.org/yep