UNDP-supported project helps deprived Guatemalan youth find employment
A project led by the Municipality of Guatemala City and supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is providing young people from deprived areas with opportunities their situations would not usually afford.
According to UNDP data, 70% of Guatemala’s population is under the age of 15, and of those of secondary school age only 65% are actually attending school. The Munijoven project aims to create academic opportunities for those underprivileged youth and to help them into employment.
To date, around 10,000 young people have taken part in training and workshops on subjects including English, IT, and customer service training, enabling them to break through into roles and industries they otherwise wouldn’t have been able to access.
Ana Gabriela De León, UNDP’s Program Officer for Poverty Reduction and Social Investment, says “Business participation is a key part of this process, since the main goal at the end of the training is to integrate young people into the labor market.” With the UNDP’s support, an employment strategy is currently being developed within the city’s youth policy, to create better economic, training, health, and recreational opportunities through public—private partnerships.
Our author Jochen Kluve has explored youth labor market interventions in respect to programs in OECD countries. He says that the “key to a successful youth intervention program is comprehensiveness, comprising multiple targeted components, including job-search assistance, counseling, training, and placement services.” However, he acknowledges that such programs can be costly, “which underscores the need to focus on education policy and earlier interventions in the education system” to improve the school-to-work transition.
Whereas Werner Eichhorst notes that, “if tailored to the needs of employers and the labor market, dual vocational education and structured on-the-job learning programs can smooth entry into the labor market for young people compared with an academic high school education alone.” He states that “since most countries already have some form of vocational training program they could start with existing elements to bring vocational education and training closer to employer and labor market needs.”
Read more about the Munijoven project here
Related articles:
Youth labor market interventions, by Jochen Kluve
Does vocational training help young people find a (good) job?, by Werner Eichhorst