With an investment of 8 million dollars, several organizations in the region, together with the IADB, seek to provide assistance to young people graduating for school and looking for their first job. During difficult times for many countries’ economy, it is expected that these youngsters shall become part of the NEET population (not in employment, education or training).

The Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), member of the Inter American Development Bank (IADB), approved a technical cooperation to support the Forge Foundation regionally expand a model to ease the transition from school to quality work for 14.000 youngsters in Argentina, Mexico, Peru y Uruguay.

Increasing the possibilities of formal employment among young people in Latin America and the Caribbean is a one of the main challenges in the region. The unemployment rate duplicates in the case of youngsters and, in several cases, it is even three times higher than the global rate.

Poor and vulnerable young people, especially women, are the most affected by informality and unemployment.

Almost 6 out of 10 youngsters who manage to get a job are under informal conditions, which means lower salaries, labour instability and lack of protection. Several studies have shown that a first formal job improves the labour career among young people.

Accompany during the process

Methodology applied by Forge presents two innovative aspects. To help strengthening the labour supply, Forge shall work together with the private sector and schools to improve young people’s employability. In order to accomplish this, it shall work with students after school, providing technical and humanistic formation during a year.

Later on, it accompanies the young person during his search for a job, and a little while longer after insertion. It values and promotes that the insertion is done within companies in the network, under formal conditions.

As regards labour demand, the project shall widen and consolidate a network of 600 companies who are committed to youth employment. It shall guarantee that the network obtains an identity and regional reach, and therefore become a space where committed private sector generates knowledge actions and products.

Finally, the idea is to transfer the method and knowledge of the model applied to at least to public-private organizations, working in collaboration to increase the scale and improve the quality of employment services for young people.

A regional effort

The project will be part of the regional initiative New Employment Opportunities, best known as NEO, in which companies, the government and citizens provide resources, knowledge and capacity to implement effective and sustainable employment solutions, aiming to improve the employability of poor and vulnerable young people in Latin America and the Caribbean.

NEO regional initiative was launched during the Summit of the Americas during April 2012, under the strategic leadership and support of the MIF, the IABD Social Department and the International Youth Foundation, having as founding members Arcos Dorados, Caterpillar Foundation, Cemex, Microsoft and Walmart.

Currently, NEO initiatives are being implemented in Nuevo Leon, in Mexico, Dominican Republic, Brazil and in the Antioquian Uraba in Colombia.

The project’s cost is 7.863.661 dollars, out of which 1.704.669 will be granted by the MIF and 6.158.991 by the Forge Foundation of Uruguay, Argentina, Peru and Mexico.

The Forge Foundation is a Swiss organization that operates exclusively in Latin America. It was created in 2005 and operates Argentina, Uruguay y Peru, and starting to operate in Mexico.