Over a thousand people will gather today in an international meeting to address the challenges and opportunities of youth employment in Latin America.

On May 31^st, the government authorities, academics, businessmen and young people coming from several countries in the region are gathering to promote initiatives that contribute to the creation of labor opportunities for young Latin Americans.

It is the 2^nd Pacific Alliance Youth Summit, organized by Nestlé with the support of the Chilean and the Swiss governments. This time, over one thousand people coming from Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Chile will attend the event. Around 900 of them are youngsters.

The goal of the summit is to expand young people’s opportunities to develop skills, and to enable a space for collaboration to improve youth employment and entrepreneurship, focusing on dual education.

Youth is the group most affected by unemployment and they face the greatest difficulties to access the labor world, and, when they do so, they tend to get informal jobs.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), there are 71 million unemployed youngsters in the world, and 156 million young workers live in poverty.

During the Summit, which takes place during the Week of Education and Labor of the Pacific Alliance, there will be roundtables and panels with remarkable experts from the education, labor and business world, who shall address the challenges and opportunities of youth employment in Latin America; the importance of training and placement programs for young people that link the economy and the education system; and strategies to enhance youth entrepreneurship.

Laurent Freixe, CEO of Nestlé in the Americas; and Josef Widmer, Deputy to the State Secretary of Education, Research and Innovation of the Swiss government, will be the opening speakers. The program also includes lectures by José Manuel Salazar, ILO regional director regional for Latin America and the Caribbean; Alejandra Krauss, Chilean Minister of Labor; Max Trejo, General Secretary of the Ibero-American Youth Organization; Alfredo Moreno, President of the Confederation of Production and Commerce of Chile (CPC); and Pedro Pina, Commercial Director of Google, among others.

The milestones of the event will be the signing of the “Agreement for Youth Employability of the Pacific Alliance”, which shall be signed by those companies that acknowledge that youth unemployment is a challenge for society and that they play a key role in solving it. Through the agreement, around 40 local and international companies will commit to develop initiatives to provide young people with relevant working experience, while encouraging their employees to help young people get ready for work.

The young attendants will have the opportunity of expressing their interests, expectations and requests to political, economic, business and social actors of the world and the region.

In light of that situation, a previous work meeting was developed on May 30^th to discuss issues and proposals to solve the problems linked to youth unemployment. In addition, experiences to improve the link of young people in the four Alliance Pacific countries were promoted.

During this Summit, advances will be made of the process started in the first Summit developed in 2016 in Lima, Peru. That summit summoned young people to develop alliances with the public world and place the debate and discussions regarding youth employment in the region.

This 2^nd Summit will include the participation of young Chileans studying at universities, professional institutes and technical schools, as well as young people who belong to the delegations of the Alliance member countries, and from Argentina and Bolivia.

The Summit will be broadcasted via streaming at www.nestle.cl

Social network users will also be able to comment, share and ask questions during the event by using the hashtag #PorLosJóvenes in Twitter.