Youth Employment Solutions: The Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) Model
Plan International is a child centered development organization enabling millions of children and youth to reach their full potential by lifting themselves out of poverty. Plan recognizes that critical to breaking the cyclical nature of poverty is decent work and economic security. Securing decent work for youth has quickly become a major programmatic concern in the areas where we work. Plan is playing a facilitating role and bridging the gaps between youth, educational training, businesses, and governments. By weaving together a coherent strategy that views each stakeholder along the jobs value chain as an important contributor to the others, Plan is making youth employment a shared responsibility. It is not just the goal of youth themselves, but an investment in which everyone has a stake in its success. Working across 50 programme countries around the globe, Plan is tackling this crisis head on by building upon its efforts to reach a critical mass. Plan is implementing the Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) as its main driver of change in its youth employment program. The organization is successfully implementing the model across its global context including: Asia: Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are currently contextualizing the approach for implementation. Africa: Uganda, Tanzania and South Sudan. Latin America: El Salvador, Colombia, and Brazil are slated for implementation in 2014. Plan aims to roll-out the LABS intervention to other countries in the coming year and is integrating the learning from existing interventions in order to strengthen its approach.
The LABS program The Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) initiative was developed in India by the Dr. Reddy’s Foundation (DRF). This model was developed to address the needs of youth who are constrained by poverty, inadequate skills and lack of opportunity for vocational training and development. Through technical, vocational education and training, LABS aims to provide an environment of interactive learning and mentoring to development relevant skills for decent work.
The diagram outlines the lifecycle of the Livelihood Advancement Business School (LABS) initiative. The LABS program follows a series of carefully evolved and executed steps that logically take a livelihood program from conception to completion in a structured manner. The program has proven to be a successful formula in creating sustainable livelihood for disadvantaged youth. The LABS model has been applied and further developed by Plan based on the environment of execution. The LABS process begins with the mapping of an area to gauge its potential to employ the model, based on the local economy, job market, industrial profile and the needs and makeup of the youth population. After detailed interactions with industry professionals and local opinion leaders, the type of vocational courses to be implemented are decided upon and the next step begins, the development of suitable curricula. After the curriculum has been developed, the next step is mobilization of candidates, which is typically done with the assistance of local partners / communities, municipal bodies and LABS alumni. The candidates are then administered an interest inventory, to ensure they are allocated a course that is in line with their capabilities.
After this, participants are put through an induction program by the facilitators, followed by the training course (which includes on-the-job training, assignments, projects and field visits). Valuable life skills and a ‘Communicative English’ module are also integrated into the curriculum in an interactive manner. Towards the end of the course, a ‘Work Readiness Module’ is administered, which helps the students prepare their resumes, face interviews, cope with workplacerelated issues, and balance their personal and professional lives. As soon as the course is complete, entry-level jobs are made available to the students in various industrial/ service sectors. Graduates have access to counseling support from their facilitator after graduation. LABS assesses the effectiveness of its programs by monitoring the progress of its alumni at their workplaces.
Opportunities and Challenges The LABS model has several key elements that have contributed to its overall rate of success. These include: Vocational training, Targeted at youth aged 15-30, Short curriculum (3-4 months), and Focused on obtaining a starting position in employment market, and In urban/peri-urban centers. The LABS model is most appropriate in responding to environments with the following favorability factors: Relatively large population in target age group, Sufficient need (disadvantaged youth), High unemployment, and Sufficient economic opportunities (employment) and economic growth. Based on the experiences to date, several factors have emerged that limit the applicability of the model in a country including: Low population density, Lack of economical opportunities, and Complex educational requirements.
Based on the experiences to date, several factors have emerged that limit the applicability of the model in a country including: Low population density, Lack of economical opportunities, and Complex educational requirements. It is important to also note that LABS model focuses on vocational training to find employment where factors of supply and demand operate within the labor market. However, several countries are developing and implementing segments that focus on entrepreneurship development in conjunction with mentoring and financial accessibility for participants to set up their own businesses. Finally, the LABS model focuses on urban areas, as these typically have more economic opportunities than rural environments where labor markets tend to be less sophisticated. The LABS model assumes a certain density in the target group, to enable an efficient execution of the model. Even though there may be a great need for LABS in rural areas, to launch such an initiative would require significant program modification and investment.
Engaging Business Addressing the youth employment crisis means new ways of working. Working in close partnership with local, national and multinational corporations is critical to developing long term solutions to the youth employment crisis and a key pillar of the LABS methodology. Corporate partners including Accenture, Hyatt, Accord Hotels, Hyundai, 7-11 (and hundreds of national and local businesses) are also recognizing that helping to solve the jobs crisis is vital to their profitability. Corporations are playing a vital role in providing jobs to young people and working with civil society to create job placement programs. Over the last decade, there has been a significant increase in corporate engagement with Plan and in tackling the jobs crisis head on. Corporations are working closely with Plan, global financial institutions, bilateral donors and civil-society agencies to leverage resources and maximize their impact. Plan believes that private-sector participation can have the greatest impact on efforts to secure decent work for millions of unemployed youth. Plan has devoted an entire division within its global operating model to cultivating business relationships for youth employment.
ACCENTURE Partnership for Change Since 2010, Plan has been working in partnership with Accenture to tackle youth unemployment in Asia—specifically, in Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam and India. Through the Skills to Succeed initiative, Accenture has been offering financial support and pro-bono consulting to Plan in order to maximize the impact of our efforts. With support from Accenture, Plan has developed LABS-In-A-Box resource in order to assist countries in implementing the approach, including market scan tools, curriculum design techniques, and business engagement strategies.
YOUTH PROFILE Youth that participate in LABS are primarily from excluded and marginalized communities. Participating youth face significant challenges to realizing their right to a quality education enabling them to securing decent work. Broadly this includes: Child laborers; Young mothers and girls, Rural migrating youth, Youth with disabilities, and Youth impacted by HIV/AIDS.
Results to Date Based on the empirical evidence, Plan in Asia has been able to assist approximately 20,000 youth through its youth employment initiatives over the last three years. The evidence from individual countries implementing the LABS model reveal consistently high rates of those securing decent work. For example, the most recent independent evaluation from Plan Vietnam indicates that of the youth participating in the LABS initiative, 94 percent in Da Nang and 80 percent in Hanoi have transitioned into decent work. Regionally, Plan aspires to ensure that 70 percent of those trained in our programs secure decent work. Plan has also developed a Quality Assurance Framework consisting of eight quality areas and 109 guiding principles on the bases of which operation are monitored and evaluated. Plan has also developed a number of resources to assist in the execution of the LABS initiative, including: Market Scan Methodology Assessment Tool, Business to Youth Networking Resource, Curriculum Development Manual, and LABS-In-A-Box Manual. Plan aims to develop a Master Trainer approach for LABS in order to systematize and scale up these efforts across the region. Additionally, Plan is working to produce and electronic version of the LABS Manual and develop a Learning Management System (LMS) to digitize content and provide E-learning through cost effective mechanisms for vocational training.
John B. Trew, Youth Employment Specialist Plan Asia Regional Office 18th Floor, Ocean Tower 2 Building 75/24 Sukhumvit 19 Rd. Bangkok 10110, Thailand Tel: +66 (0) 2 204 2630-4 Fax: +66 (0) 2 204 2629 Website: www.plan-international.org/asia Facebook: PlaninAsia Twitter: @PlanAsia