1. Trade Union Training on Youth Employment for ICFTU-APRO Youth Committee Turin 27-31 May, 2005

2. Examples and good practices of labour market policies on youth employment Sara Spant Associate Expert on Employment Promotion The Youth Employment Network (YEN)

3. UN Resolution on Promoting Youth Employment A/RES/57/165 (2002) Encourages Member States to prepare national reviews and action plans on youth employment and to involve youth organizations and young people in this process; Invites the International Labour Organization, in collaboration with the Secretariat and the World Bank, to assist and support, the efforts of Governments in developing reviews and action plans, and to undertake a global analysis and evaluation of progress made.

4. National Action Plans (NAPs) on Youth Employment A total of 37 countries submitted national action plans or progress reports. Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan, R. South Korea, Singapore, and Thailand.

5. Guidance note for NAP’s in response to UN Resolution 57/165 on Promoting Youth Employment The guidance note encourages governments to: Carry out reviews of past policies, Consider an integrated concept for employment policy, Set in place a consultative process or mechanism, Base their action plans on existing documents and analyses, Review the quality and range of available statistics regarding employment, unemployment and underemployment of young people.

6. Guidance note encourages governments to: Consider the four global priorities (4 E’s) for a decent work strategy for young people:  employability,  equal opportunities,  entrepreneurship, and  employment creation Include information and communication technologies (ICT), the school-to-work transition, and the importance of youth employment for collective security.

7. Labour market policies for youth in Asia (*non NAP info) Very few countries have undertaken a review of past policies and programmes  Korea Integrated concept for employment policy  Most countries focus on supply side measures such as education, vocational training, work experience, career guidance, and job counseling.  Some countries link youth employment to macro- economic policies such as stimulating demand for employment creation.

8. Consultative process Some countries have put in place a consultative process or mechanism.  Korea – Tripartite social pact on job creation as well as a job creation committee with tripartite representatives to support and develop the social pact. The NAP was developed with the assistance from government agencies, experts, job counsellors, and civil organizations.  Indonesia – “youth to youth consultations” and an I-YEN, which involves senior policy makers as well as representatives from the social partners, private sector and civil society and youth organizations.

9. Consultative process  Sri Lanka – established a YENSL and a Task Force has been created consisting of government ministries, employers’ and workers’ organizations, civil society and youth organizations that will develop joint solutions to the youth employment challenge in Sri Lanka.

10. Monitoring progress Few countries have presented reviews of the quality and range of available statistics regarding employment, unemployment and underemployment of young people. Countries present basic data but seldom disaggregated by sex, age, ethnicity, rural or urban etc.  Indonesia and Korea – incorporates mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation including indicators

11. Employability  Education  Indonesia – universal basic education, improving quality, eliminating fees and reducing uniform and book costs, offering scholarships, encourages local communities and the private sector to do same.

12. Employability  Vocational Training  Establishing more training institutions, improving existing centres, training grants, training assistance, include entrepreneurship training,  Indonesia – establishing a qualification framework which standardizes a nation wide competency- based skill system.  Russia – mobile training classrooms and temporary training centres.  Japan – “dual system” combines training in class rooms with practical training in businesses. In some cases the governments pay salaries.

13. Employability  Work experience  Internships and apprenticeships provides tangible work experience. Can take the form of formal training agreements with employers or subsidies to enterprises who hire youth.  Japan – “Youth Trial Employment Scheme” with financial incentives to companies that offer training jobs  Indonesia – seeks to build bridges between educational institutions and business community with work experience programmes.  India – apprenticeship schemes*

14. Employability Career guidance and job counseling  Common approaches are job fairs, improving and increasing job centers, improving job–seeking skills of candidates, special activities for disadvantaged youth, improve communication through radio, television, newspapers, billboards and internet.  Singapore – the Singapore Workforce Development Agency works closely with educational and vocational institutions to provide information and guidance to youth through teachers and career counselors.

15. Employability  Korea – expand training for teachers, parents, businessmen and experts to work as counselors, strengthen partnerships between schools and employment centers, targeting young women to provide specialized counseling, one-stop-shops.  Indonesia – “Pocket Guide” for young job seekers

16. Entrepreneurship Focus on supporting the start and run of businesses, changing regulations, providing micro finance, creating an entrepreneurial culture and including entrepreneurship training in schools, training institutions and universities.  Indonesia – foster links between large and small enterprises, foster self-help groups and cooperatives by youth.  Sri Lanka – develop an entrepreneurial culture among youth, include entrepreneurship training in vocational training schools.*  Singapore – “Technoprenurship 21” to provide funding to facilitate start ups.*

17. Employment creation  Job creation  Few countries seem to link youth employment to development or other macro economic plans. But some use subsidies and tax incentives to companies who hires young people are common.  Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam - included youth employment in their PRSPs but marginal.*

18. Employment creation  Korea – reviewing economic and labour policies to focus on employment growth and find a balance with economic growth.  Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Korea and Thailand have used expansionary macroeonomic policies to promote employment but youth specific activities are needed.*

19. Employment creation  Pakistan - public work schemes to generate employment such as roads, increasing access to water supply, sewerage, garbage collection, culverts and village electrification.  Indonesia – exploit opportunities in emerging sectors such as tourism, mass media, health education, environmental conservation, ICT and agro industry.  China and Thailand – agricultural reform to secure ownerships.*  India, Hong Kong, Korea and Malaysia - promoting ICT sectors and investing in ICT infrastructure or public services to generate employment in ICT.*

20. Employment creation  Srilanka’s Youth Corps - Creates employment opportunities for educated youth through training, counseling and experience. Focuses on life skills and community development. Community initiatives are outsourced to local agencies and private providers.

21. Employment creation Quality of employment Few countries focus on the quality of employment  Korea - strengthening their supervision of complying with statutory work hours, enhancing competitiveness by improving working condition in SMEs.  Indonesia – seeks to provide improved protection for women workers overseas.

22. Equal opportunities Breaking down occupation stereotyping, providing universal access to education and training, providing gender sensitive guidance and counseling, data disaggregated by sex.  Indonesia – addressing gender stereotypes in curricula and gender segregation in education, conduct awareness raising campaigns to change traditional gender roles and the division of responsibilities between women and men.  Thailand – organizes career days for youth living in detention centers.

23. Trade unions and employment promotion Trade unions are supporting the initiatives of governments and employers to provide more and better jobs for youth in several areas:

24. Be involved the drafting, implementation and evaluation of national action plans on youth employment and other economic and development plans. Supporting job creation programmes that focus on expanding sectors (such as services and IT) and the public sector (especially education, training, health and local services) making certain that new jobs are accessible to vulnerable groups including young women Trade unions and employment promotion

25. Advocating the reduction of overtime and working hours to increase the number of jobs available to young recruits Negotiating better working conditions, fighting wage discrimination against young workers and promoting the principle of equal pay for work of equal value Trade unions and employment promotion

26. Promoting social protection for all including young people to provide security to developing skills and nurturing creativity and to take advantage of labour market opportunities Supporting employment protection laws and strengthening legislation governing the employment of young people Trade unions and employment promotion

27. Develop tools for preparing young people for job applications, interviews, working life, labour rights etc. Supporting measures to bridge the “digital divide” Adopting measures to ensure that social protection systems and legal and regulatory instruments cover young workers engaged in new working patterns and practices Trade unions and employment promotion

28. Provide inputs to development of youth entrepreneurship awareness programmes in schools and promote social development and workers’ rights. Work with training institutions to develop vocational training curricula that meet local labour market needs. Provide inputs into the development of apprenticeships schemes for young people to avoid exploitation.

29. Examples of ILO tools and programmes for youth employment Conventions and regulations Assistance in the development of NAPs on youth employment Mainstream youth in development plans, decent work country programmes Know About Business (KAB) training package, GET Ahead Training, Start and Improve Your Business (SYIB)

30. Private and NGO intiatives Mentoring programmes Youth Business China The Phillippine Youth Business Foundation The Baharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust in India Bapak Angkat or « adoptive father » in Indonesia. Thai Business Initiatve in Rural Development (TBIRD)

31. Examples of ILO tools and programmes for youth employment Assisting in improving employment service centers and national curricula development Transition School-to-work surveys (China, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, and Viet Nam) Improving statistical data Assisting in improving working conditions in Export Processing Zones (EPZs) Programme on the elimination of the worst forms of child labour and the prevention of trafficking in women and children