A delegation of experts of the French Public Employment Services and consultants of the Inter-American Bank of Development (IDB) arrived at Peru with the goal of strengthening the services provided by the Employment Centre of the Ministry of Labour.

Daniel Maurate, Peruvian Minister of Labour, pointed out that the visit is being developed as part of the Technical Support Network to Employment Services in Latin America and the Caribbean (SEALC). The objective is to improve the strategies with the private sector to place young people in the labour market as well as the human resources management of the Employment Centre.

The minister welcomed the delegation headed by Roberto Flores Lima, IDB expert consultant in Public Employment Services, and Jean Pierre Callais, chief of International Cooperation of the French Public Employment Services; both experts highlighted the importance of training workers, as well as of labour intermediation, and of evaluating the impact of labour markets’ interventions.

The French experts could check on site how the twelve free of charge services offered by the Centre of Employment work. Some of these services include: the job board, labour market information, labour training, and temporary work, among others.

The Employment Centre is a mechanism that promotes job placements, improvements of employability and development of sustainable entrepreneurships, granting free employment and entrepreneurship promotion services that the State provides in one place both for citizens and companies.

Labour fairs, called Employment Weeks, are developed in the Peruvian regions every week. These fairs bring employment promotion, employability and entrepreneurship services to the vulnerable population.

During the visit of the IDB’s delegation, several meetings were developed to gather the Sectorial Technical Committees that enable finding and closing labour skills gaps.

Furthermore, a follow up of the project linked to improving and expanding the services of the Employment Centre for formal youth job placements in the regions of Arequipa, Ica, Lambayeque, La Libertad, Piura, San Martín and Metropolitan Lima, co-financed by the IDB with 30 million dollars.

The project also aims to improve the articulation with the productive sector. In other words, the goal is to have a larger number of companies using the service so that the Employment Centre is the mean through which they hire workers.