According to Gabriela Samela’s article for iEco, the economy section of the Argentinian newspaper, Clarín, large companies are associating with NGOs and with the public sector to promote technical training among secondary school students in order to help them access the labour market.

These training programs, targeted to vulnerable sectors of the population, include technical training linked to the chain of value of companies and general employment formation.

For instance, in 2014 Samsung started a program in Argentina called Tech Institute. This program provides courses on different trades that last up to four months as well as courses that train youngsters so they get a better understanding of the labour market.  Samsung is working together with a NGO, Fundación Pescar, which dedicates to linking education, youth and employment.

Another example is the one of Dow Chemical, which has an employment training program called Buen Trabajo, addressed to people between 18 and 35 years old who live in the town in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, where the company functions. The program is the result of a communicational space between the company and the community living close to its’ facilities.

On the one hand, Dow found out that people were worried about unemployment. On the other hand, contractors from the area were having difficulties when trying to hire qualified workers. So, a program to train people was developed. The program is flexible and goes through modifications according to the workforce’s needs in the area. It was implemented 9 years ago and since then it has achieved that over 60% of graduates enter the labour market.

Finally, the multinational company Nestlé, introduced in 2015 the program Iniciativa por los jóvenes. The program expects to reach two years from now around 100.000 youngsters between 18 and 29 years old to help them in the transition from school to work. In order to do so, Nestlé made alliances with technical schools to develop employability courses and internships during the students’ final year at school.

To read the original article in Spanish, click here.