Overview

Apprenticeship

In June 2004, the German government and the employers and business associations signed the national Vocational and Educational Training Pact (for 2004-2007). German industry committed to creating 30,000 extra apprenticeship placements and 25,000 entrance qualifications (to improve core employability skills), which allows extra training for young jobseekers in the enterprises.

• Industry involvement in the training ensures labour market transition;
• Recognizes the value of formal apprenticeship

Germany

Advocacy

Since 2005, Deichmann, a major shoe retailer, has been holding a yearly competition for employers and companies that have been active in creating employment opportunities for disadvantaged young  people. The award is given to private companies (mostly SMEs) and public organizations that have been especially committed to helping youth with disabilities. The main goal is to set incentives to companies to combat rising youth unemployment.

• Promotional initiative in the form of awards;
• Targets enterprises that have created jobs, especially for young people with disabilities.

Germany and Austria

Youth employment promotion

Advocacy

The Youth Employment Summit (YES) Campaign brings together diverse stakeholders and works with them to (1) develop the capacity of youth to lead employment initiatives; (2) promote youth employment and address key development challenges; and (3) build in-country coalitions to develop national strategies addressing youth unemployment. In over 60 countries, youth-led networks work with stakeholders such as government, business, academics, NGOs and UN agencies to develop programmes and suggest policies for promoting youth employment.

• Includes multiple stakeholders, particularly youth;
• Focuses on youth leadership;
• Provides funding opportunities for youth entrepreneurship projects.

International

Youth employment promotion

The Jamaica Youth Employment Network (JYEN) was launched in Jamaica on 20 September 2005 under the aegis of the Jamaica Employers’ Federation (JEF). Within the JYEN, 23 major stakeholders have joined to champion the cause of promoting youth employment. JYEN facilitates social dialogue and the implementation of projects under the four focus areas of the JYEN, namely: employment creation, employability, entrepreneurship and equal opportunity.

• Includes 23 stakeholders, comprising government, employers, trade unions and youth;
• Pursues youth employment promotion through support activities targeting young people, advocacy and knowledge building and sharing. 

Jamaica

Youth employment promotion

In 2003 the State Secretaries for Social Affairs & Employment and for Education, Culture & Science established the Youth Unemployment Task Force to tackle more efficiently youth unemployment at the local, regional and sectoral levels. Participants include representatives of employers (Confederation of Netherlands Industry and Employers - VNO-NCW), education (ROC) and trade unions (FNV). The Task Force promotes cooperation between all stakeholders of the labour market and education.

• Based on an integral approach from local to national level;
• Multi-stakeholder initiative including private sector, trade unions and the education sector;
• Encourages private sector to create jobs for youth;
• Collects best practices.

Netherlands

Youth employment promotion

The purpose of the initiative Alliance for African Youth Employability, launched by the International Youth Foundation together with other partners, is to help young people in Africa develop skills and strengthen attitudes and behaviours that will help them find and keep employment. It aims to promote employability and employment for more than 1 300 disadvantaged young people aged 14 to 29 who live in rapidly urbanizing areas of Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa.

• Focuses on disadvantaged youth;
• Includes vocational training, life and core work skills training, entrepreneurship education and business start-up assistance;
• Involves multiple stakeholders.

Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda and South Africa

School-business partnership

In 2002 the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) formed the Business and Industry School to Work Alliance (BISWA) with the  Enterprise and Career Education Foundation (ECEF) to provide for employer engagement with the Ministerial Council on Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) New Framework for Vocational Education and Training in School, to influence key stakeholder groups towards a positive perception of VET in school activities, and to model best practice, collaborative and strategic alliances. In this context, ACCI launched a survey to gather information to help formulate a strategic partnership between industry and the education sector.

• Recognizes the importance of school-business linkages to provide students with relevant industry skills;
• Recognizes the importance of on-the-job training for acquisition of skills;
• Identifies enterprise education as an area for partnerships across a range of organizations.

Australia

Career guidance

Apprenticeship

Long-term youth unemployment is considered to be a serious problem by the Austrian Federal Chamber of Commerce (WKÖ). An innovative Job Coaching project for long-term unemployed youth aims at giving youth aged between 15 and 25 a chance to get a job or, alternatively, access to education. It provides for a personal coach who helps the adolescent deal with relevant government authorities (i.e. the Public Employment Service), possible future employers and, finally, encourages them to retain a job or work placement. The coaches are in permanent personal contact with the young people. They contact suitable employers and accompany young people to job-interviews.

• Involves the employers' organization (WKÖ) and Public Employment Service, thereby bridging supply and demand; 
• Combines training on core skills for employability, personal coaching and job placement;
• Is co-funded by the employers' organization and the Public Employment Service.

Austria

Career guidance

In 2001 the Federation of Austrian Industry started the project Industry turns female. A website was created to motivate young girls to undertake a technical-oriented education that leads to a career in industry. Since the career path is decided quite early in the school system, the initiative targets girls aged 12 to 14. The initiative tries to cover all educational and vocational institutions (apprenticeships, technical colleges, polytechnics and universities).

• Recognizes that in order to reach the target group, programmes need to be geared to the aspirations of youth;           
• Targets girls at an appropriate age in the career decision cycle;
• Targets key stakeholders in the process, not just the recipients.

Austria

Vocational training

The main objective of this initiative supported by Hennes & Mauritz is to train disadvantaged youth (aged 17 and older) in order to help them find jobs as skilled workers in the clothing industry, the biggest and most important industry in Bangladesh but one that has faced child labour problems in the past. Through this initiative, youth are involved in vocational education and, after successful completion of the training, are offered employment at H&M suppliers.

• Recognizes that the reintegration of child labourers in the vocational education system requires a combination of services, programmes, institutions and stakeholders; 
• Offers guaranteed employment after successful completion of training; 
• Has a prominent focus on young women.

Bangladesh

Vocational training

Life skills training  

Work experience

The objective of the Network, established in 1995, is to promote and support its member insertion enterprises in their effort to facilitate social and labour market inclusion of marginalized people, in particular youth. Services offered to member enterprises focus on: exchange of information, representation vis-à-vis policy and governmental instances, promotion of insertion enterprises, training of permanent staff, networking among insertion enterprises and support to the development of insertion enterprises.

• Combines holistic training (i.e. life, vocational and social skills) for disadvantaged and marginalized youth, while supporting and accompanying them in their professional and social integration;
• Includes follow-up once the youth has finished the programme and is hired by an enterprise;
• Is based on partnerships with a number of partners, including grassroots community organizations as well as social, private and public sectors.

Canada - Quebec

Apprenticeship

The Deutsche Bahn is the German privatized national railroad company and one of the biggest providers of apprenticeships in Germany with about 8,200 placements. An initiative called Chance Pluswas started in 2004 by DB in cooperation with other German-based companies. The programme was created as a follow-up to the Vocational Education and Training Pact, which was signed in 2004 between the German government and employers' organizations.

• Second chance programme which combines employers' commitment to workplace experience with further training;
• Targets young people who cannot find an apprenticeship placement or a job after graduation due to a poor academic record or insufficient core work skills;
• Recognizes the importance of core work skills for employability;
• Provides support to participants throughout the programme.

Germany

Vocational training

The German BP Foundation was founded in 1998 as an initiative aimed at combating youth unemployment. The objective of the Foundation is the promotion of youth employment, especially through the active support of occupational qualification, retraining, social support and mentoring of unemployed young people. The Foundation has funds of 5.5 million euros and currently supports projects worth 200 000 euros.

• Recognizes the importance of formal qualifications; 
• Introduces core work skills.

Germany

Apprenticeship

In 2006 the German Confederation of Employers' Associations (BDA) compiled a 58-page report on activities taken by employers’ organizations to combat youth unemployment. The purpose of this initiative was to disseminate information in support of the aims of the National Pact on Vocational and Educational Training between the German government and employers' organizations.

• Takes stock of a wide range of activities undertaken by German employers to tackle youth employment problems;
• Has helped strengthen employers' commitment to the National Pact on Vocational Education and Training.

Germany

School-business partnership

The federal working group SCHULEWIRTSCHAFT is a network of schools and enterprises. Since 1965 the initiative has coordinated the activities of working groups, which are locally organized within the federal states of Germany ; it promotes an exchange of information and experience through a lively dialogue between the two groups. The chair of the initiative is shared by a representative of academia and business.

• Provides for a continuous dialogue between business and the education system;
• Working groups are locally organized within the federal states of Germany .

Germany

Apprenticeship

Former child labourers are selected to take part in a three-month apprenticeship programme organized by the ILO through its International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour (IPEC), in collaboration with Apindo, the Indonesian Employers’ Association. Astra Honda, food manufacturing company Bogasari and garment producer UNITEX are Apindo participating members.

• Offers short-term apprenticeship programme targeting former child labourers;              
• Includes intensive training on core work skills;
• Involves employers' organizations and selected member companies;
• Makes available financial and in-kind contributions by companies after the apprenticeship programme.

Indonesia

Vocational training

The International Youth Foundation (IYF) was established in 1990 to bring worldwide resources to young people in need. IYF works with hundreds of companies, foundations, and civil society organizations to strengthen and "scale up" existing youth employment programmes that are making a positive and lasting difference in young lives.

• Multi-stakeholder initiative;
• Focuses on training on core work skills and strengthening youth leadership;
• Learning from the local level, brings best practices to the international level/network.

International

Apprenticeship

The Youth Career Initiative (YCI) is a six-month programme that mobilizes the human, financial and technical resources of the hotel industry in order to provide young people in developing countries with valuable life and vocational skills, which would be difficult to acquire elsewhere.

• Combines life skills with vocational training;
• Combines class-based training with training in the work environment;
• Cross-sector partnership approach helps ensure sustainability; 
• Training is formally recognized with certification.

International

Vocational training  

Career guidance

HEART is a National Training Agency, which gives students a chance to extend their education through skills training by working with local businesses. HEART tries to match skills that students acquire in school with the needs of the labour market.

• Delivers training in different settings;
• Offers certification to international standards;
• Facilitates job search through IT uses;
• Offers transition management services for individuals.      

Jamaica

Vocational training 

Job placement 

Entra 21 works to improve the employability of disadvantaged Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) youth (aged 16-29) by helping them gain information and communication technology (ICT) skills through internships, job training, mentoring, job networking and job placement.

• Provides IT and life skills training for disadvantaged youth;
• Uses a clear strategy for  job placement that goes beyond technical skills training;
• Provides grants to participating projects (funds come from IADB/MIF, USAID and private sector).

Latin America, The Caribbean

Vocational training

The project objective is to establish and disseminate a model where employees’ and employers’ organizations are able to actively participate and contribute to the vocational education and training system. The target group are unemployed young people in Ankara (especially long- term unemployed and immigrants).

• Workers and employers partnership to make vocational education and training more applicable to world of work;
• Provides certification for the training;
• Assists with job search upon completing of training.

Turkey

School-business partnership

The objective of the survey Companies and Classrooms, conducted by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Wales , is to identify businesses that operate innovative schemes and programmes with schools and colleges.

• Brings together different education-business linkage schemes to maximize schools’ access to companies and mentors;
• Includes best practice examples on work experience.

United Kingdom

Work experience

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) undertook research to gather evidence that would help employers provide young people with meaningful work experience placements. The time that students spend during their job placements should be efficiently used as it is an opportunity for students to learn and use general competencies needed in the world of work. This report aims at helping employers and students to improve the impact of employability training during the work placement.

• Includes suggestions for employers on how to build employability development into work experience programmes;
• Includes a checklist that students can use to identify competencies that might be important at work, to keep a record of tasks undertaken during a work experience programme and to rate their own abilities.

United Kingdom

Apprenticeship

Johnson & Johnson established the Bridge to Employment (BTE) to help young people build solid futures by introducing them to a broad array of careers in health care. The idea is to demonstrate to students through real-world experiences that learning can be meaningful, engaging and relevant to their future. By fostering long-term partnerships among businesses, educators, community-based organizations and parents, BTE helps prepare young people to meet the challenges and requirements of careers in the health care industry.

• Recognizes and addresses the difficulties of school to work transition;
• Combines work experience with vocational training;
• Is implemented through a multi-stakeholder approach;
• Builds parental involvement into the programme.

United States and Ireland

Entrepreneurship development

Fundación Impulsarwas established in 1999 to assist young people in overcoming unemployment through entrepreneurship. It provides free training courses for potential entrepreneurs on how to conduct market research and refine business plans before presentation to the approval body.  These training courses allow the foundation to reach far more young people than the previous system of one-to-one interviews.  

• Focuses on disadvantaged youth;
• Combines business mentoring with financial assistance;
• Guides youth through the process of establishing a business

Argentina

Entrepreneurship development

In recent years the National Confederation of Employers' Organizations of Azerbaijan , ASK, has implemented several initiatives on youth employment, in particular to promote entrepreneurship. These included a survey on the school-to-work transition and participating in the ILO's programme “Start and Improve Your Business” (SIYB) and “Know About your Business” (KAB). As a result of the SIYB project, about 20 persons started their own small businesses. Following the request of ASK to the Minister of Education, the KAB was introduced in two regional vocational and technical training institutions. 

• Seeks to promote youth entrepreneurship through a wide array of actions (from research to training).

Azerbaijan

Entrepreneurship education

The programmeCreating a Business That Suits You (DREAM) aims to promote entrepreneurship among students and does so by putting them in contact with experienced entrepreneurs. Furthermore, it aims to instil an enterprise culture in young people by building a bridge between schools and the world of work. It consists of visits by students to firms with post-visit assessments afterwards in class.

• Recognizes the importance of building/creating an entrepreneurship culture among youth, rather than seeing entrepreneurship as the only opportunity for employment;
• Makes "real" experience with established business people the key to success in building culture and motivation in individuals.

Belgium

Entrepreneurship education

Junior Achievement Young Enterprise Europe (JA-YE Europe) is a non-profit association based in Belgium and serves as one of several regional operating centres for JA Worldwide. The initiative brings the public and private sectors together to provide young people in primary and secondary schools and early university with high-quality education programmes to teach them about enterprise, entrepreneurship, business and economics in a practical way.

• Involves private/public partnerships;
• Is based in the school environment; 
• Is introduced in primary level education;
• Hands-on activities make it more "real" for students.

Europe

Entrepreneurship development

The Young Entrepreneurs Start-Up (YES) Programme is part of the LiveWIRE Global Network and is implemented by Shell Companies in Indonesia together with other private sector partners. It is coordinated by Indonesia Business Link (IBL) which is affiliated with Youth Business International (YBI). The programme framework was developed by integrating methodologies of the Shell LiveWIRE and Youth Business International, with technical assistance from the ILO. The programme goal is to mobilize global business support for those young people who cannot find assistance elsewhere to become entrepreneurs and set up their own businesses. 

• Integrates business plan development and training, start-up loans and mentoring;
• Features direct support of private sector in providing information, mentoring and access to credit.

Indonesia

Entrepreneurship development

YBI, a programme of the International Business Leaders Forum, helps young people to become entrepreneurs by providing business mentoring and access to start-up finance. The YBI Network is a global network of independent initiatives known as Youth Business Programmes (YBPs) that assist entrepreneurial youth to start and grow businesses when they are unable to find support elsewhere. Through these activities, the network provides a practical response to the urgent need for youth employment opportunities, and represents an important contribution to the global agenda on employment, poverty alleviation and sustainable economic growth.

• Offers direct contact with successful entrepreneurs;
• Provides access to the business community/network; 
• Combines training with guidance;
• Provides access to financing opportunities.

International

Entrepreneurship education

Junior Achievement Worldwide is a non-profit organization founded in 1919. Today it is the world’s largest organization dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship, work readiness, and financial literacy through experiential, hands-on programmes. JA aims to educate and inspire young people to value free enterprise, business and economics as means by which to improve the quality of their lives. The organization reaches 7.5 million students each year around the world.

• Part of school learning;              
• Offered early enough to become an option;
• Offers programmes adapted to each grade;
• Focus goes beyond entrepreneurship.

International

Entrepreneurship development

Shell LiveWIRE is a Shell global community iniatiative to encourage young people and those to whom they turn for advice and guidance to regard starting a business as a desirable and viable career option. LiveWIRE schemes are financed on a country-by-country basis by the local Shell company and local business partners, and they are implemented together with local and national governments. 

• Offers several services for young people, including one-to-one mentoring;
• Allows young people to work through the various aspects of their business planning and operation;
• Works through and in partnership with a wide range of local and national public and private actors.

International

Entrepreneurship development

The Young Entrepreneurs Association (YEA) is a volunteer-driven non-profit organization whose mandate is to support young entrepreneurs. It was set up in January 2006 by the Jamaica Employers' Federation (JEF) to support the creation of a cadre of young entrepreneurs and to enhance the success of youth-owned businesses in Jamaica , thereby contributing to combating youth unemployment. YEA provides members with opportunities to learn from each other's experience and to benefit from the advantages of a network.

• Creates networking opportunities for young entrepreneurs;
• Provides relevant information and assistance to young entrepreneurs;
• Makes recommendations to and lobbies policy makers on issues related to youth employment.

Jamaica

Entrepreneurship development

The Kenya Youth Business Trust (KYBT) is an initiative of Youth Business International (YBI). The programme was launched in 2003 to assist Kenya ’s large youth population in overcoming unemployment through entrepreneurship. KYBT focuses on socially and economically disadvantaged youth who want to create their own business.

• Works with disadvantaged youth aged 18 to 30 years;
• Provides start-up capital for those with viable business propositions but who are unable to find finance elsewhere;
• Provides successful applicants with volunteer business mentors and full access to the organization's local and national business support network.

Kenya

Entrepreneurship development

The National Commission for Young Entrepreneurs (CNEJ) was set up in 1986 at the initiative of the employers' organization of Mexico, COPARMEX, to spark interest in entrepreneurship within the younger generation and, at the same time, to build an active membership base of young entrepreneurs in Mexico. The CNEJ provides advisory services to young entrepreneurs and organizes thematic workshops and other meetings. 

• Provides targeted services to young entrepreneurs as well as a framework where young entrepreneurs can share ideas, network and plan strategies;
• Includes young business leaders in 58 COPARMEX Regional Business Centres;
• Offers a platform to discuss and lobby policy reforms on youth employment and entrepreneurship at the national level.

Mexico

Entrepreneurship development

The International Business Leaders Forum (IBLF) launched a resource guide in 2007, Business And Youth in the Arab World, that shows how business – in partnership with other organizations - can tackle youth unemployment and stimulate enterprise development. The resource guide includes case studies from many countries of the Middle East.

• Compiles and distils lessons learned from business-led initiatives on youth employment from across the Arab region;
• Is based on interviews with over 100 businesses and organizations in the region, including multinational corporations, regional and national companies, institutions of the education sector and civil society organizations.

Middle East

Entrepreneurship development

The Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs' Forum (NYEF) was officially set up by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FNCCI) in 2003. It aims to promote an entrepreneurial mindset and a shared vision through effective networking of young entrepreneurs. Specifically, the initiative has the following objectives: help young entrepreneurs in Nepal build fruitful and productive business networks and links among one another; and help them gain a better insight into the present status of key business sectors of tomorrow.

• Combines education, training, fellowships and exchange of experiences among young entrepreneurs;
• Recognizes the value of social responsibility among the entrepreneurs;
• Provides a platform to lobby governments for change in business practices.

Nepal

Entrepreneurship education

Junior Achievement-Young Enterprise Norway was founded in 1997 and belongs to the network of JA-Young Enterprise Europe. The organization teaches business skills to students of all ages. Through the programmes, students are given the opportunity to develop their business skills with the support of professors and business volunteers and in cooperation with other students.

• Offers a wide range of programmes to students;
• Provides bridges between educational institutions and the private sector;
• Is operational throughout the country and is present in all 19 counties of Norway .

Norway

Entrepreneurship education

In 2003 the Employers' Organization Conseil National du Patronat du Senegal (CNP) took the initiative to test the ILO's Know About your Business programme in 5 secondary schools in Dakar. The general objective of the KAB programme is to contribute towards the creation of an enterprise culture by promoting awareness among young people in secondary and tertiary education of the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship and self-employment. Following the conclusion of a MoU with the 5 schools, the KAB programme was delivered by two teachers as an extra-school activity during one school year. Each of the schools created 2 clubs called Future Managers and admitted 25 students  each - 250 students in total with a slight majority of female pupils.

• Provides extra-curricular entrepreneurship training;
• Facilitates visits to enterprises, discussions and meeting with entrepreneurs.

Senegal

Entrepreneurship education

Businessdynamics is a business education and enterprise charity that aims to bring business to life for young people. Volunteers from companies introduce students, aged 14-19 years, to the opportunities and challenges of business while also improving their key skills in preparation for the world of work.

• Combines work experience with formal education;
• Introduces business practice into school curriculum; 
• Recognizes the importance of core skills for employability

United Kingdom