Workforce Development in Changing Contexts: Private Sector Engagement for Youth Employment

Group Submission Type: Formal Panel Session

Proposal

The WFD Learning Agenda:
USAID currently funds a diverse set of activities related to workforce development (WFD) across the globe. USAID’s Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) education team, identified six different USAID-funded WFD projects in the region with several common elements that justified building a shared learning agenda. The six projects are occurring in the Northern Triangle countries (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) as well as Nicaragua, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. The projects aim to increase workforce readiness and job insertion for at-risk or disadvantaged youth ages 10 to 30 in project countries. Projects offer a variety of WFD and education-related services through existing local WFD organizations.
The WFD Learning Agenda has four main objectives: (1) share learning across USAID Missions and implementing partners in Central America; (2) report on the achievements of all six projects across four common learning areas that are important for WFD programming: (a) beneficiary participation, (b) beneficiary employment or education after completing the project, (c) engagement with the private sector, and (d) WFD organizational capacity strengthening; and (3) build a community of practice (CoP) around youth WFD. The CoP involves several formal channels for facilitating information exchange including an annual workshop, annual report synthesizing achievements of the six projects, and quarterly virtual meetings.

WFD training programs build the skills of vulnerable youth who require both technical and soft skills training. These training programs have incorporated new didactic methods, soft-skills training modules, and hands-on training to meet the technical and soft skills needs of youth. However, once youth complete training, they are often forced to compete for jobs in challenging contexts that are defined by limited economic growth, increased stigma, and limited support networks. To address the need to support youth in finding jobs, many WFD training programs have added components focused on supporting youth in the job search process. Labor-bridging activities include trying to connect youth to possible employers as well as preparing them to perform well during interviews. WFD projects often offer some level of career services and employment preparation, job fairs or events and on-the-job training and internships opportunities. As a whole, these activities focus on supply-side interventions that aim to improve youth employability and youth employment.
In an effort to further build the gap between training and employment, many WFD projects have also focused on engaging with the private sector as a demand-side intervention. While engagement strategies vary, developing and nurturing relationships with the private sector ensures that training programs are tailored to the needs of the labor market, helps projects identify possible employment opportunities for youth, and provides an opportunity to advocate for vulnerable youth as potential employees. In partnering with the private sector, the six USAID-projects identified both challenges and opportunities that can be leveraged to improve future engagement strategies.
Given that WFD projects have little control over how many jobs are available, the panel will feature how three different projects in this community of practice incorporated different labor bridging activities in an effort to increase the number of youth employed (supply side interventions) coupled with successful private sector engagement strategies (demand side activities) to help vulnerable youth find jobs. The panel will also feature activities incorporated by other projects in the community of practice, as well as USAID’s lessons learned based on the experience on the ground.

Sub Unit

• General Pool

Chair

• Patricia Costa, Mathematica Policy Research

Individual Presentations

• Successful private sector engagement strategies to boost job placement - Caterina Valero, DAI

• Tools and strategies to support youth in changing contexts - Ruth Chisholm, FHI 360

• : Engaging rural companies in job placement for youth - Sara Sywulka, World Vision

Discussant

• Olga Merchan, USAID