By M.P. Martinez

The organization suggested models to reduce the high youth unemployment rates in Mexico.

Due to high unemployment rates among young people in the country, the International Labour Organization (ILO) suggests implementing new professionalization programs that help improving work insertion.

Official numbers show that there are 31.4 million of youngsters between 15 and 29 years old in Mexico. They represent 26.3% of the entire population and they are the most affected sector on labour inclusion matters because, while general unemployment rate is 5%, in the case of young people it almost duplicates. This is quite a challenge for Latin America.

ILO has deeper concerns on the fact that 20% of youngsters neither work nor study, 75% of them are women who have no opportunity to work, mostly due to discrimination or because they rather sacrifice their professional future to take care of their family.

Nevertheless there is awareness among the government, businessmen and trade unions about the need to design new policies to include young men and women to the labour market.

One of the major reasons for high unemployment rates is the lack of a link among universities, factories and work centres. Therefore, organizations are betting on training models with a high level of practical contents.

“Dual Training” is an example of such programs. Using these sort of programs, which are being tested in Mexico, young people have the opportunity of receiving training while entering the labour market and, consequently, they can apply their knowledge in a practical way.

Thomas Wissing, director of the ILO Office for Mexico and Cuba, explained: “we are not talking about social services of internships, we are talking about a scheme where the company or work centre make a commitment to invest on young people’s training for up to three years. Countries using this system have witnessed a drop in the level of youth unemployment.”

The Labour Office considers that “young people have great potential and they will be the ones making decisions regarding our economy, so we must create opportunities for them to participate, to get involved into dialogue and into productive processes.”

Thomas Wissing claims that in our society “we talk a lot about young people, but we do not talk much with young people.”

Source: http://eleconomista.com.mx/