20-21 Feb 2020 Geneva

Summary

The session highlights three distinguished categories of youth transitions: transited, in transition, and transition not yet started. The current focus has been on transition from ‘school to work’ (SWTS), transitions are experienced in multiple ways which includes, ‘school to work’, ‘job to job’, ‘retirement’ and ‘back to work’ transitions. Whilst global employment trends reported by the ILO demonstrate that youth inequalities are indeed decreasing, this is simply due to decrease in salaries that’s a result of an oversupply of graduates in the labour markets. This signals a crisis in the availability of jobs in the labour market, which are shown to have a great impact on SWTS in young people.

Perspectives of Inequality in Latin America

Macro structures of inequality have ways to shape the economic, social and political structures that create objectives obstacles as well as subjective experiences. In Latin America, economic inequality and the concentration of wealth amongst the few in Latin America as a defining feature and link between the macro structures and the micro-level. 

Young people’s penetration into the labour market was also presented as an effect of the macrostructure inequalities at the micro-level. This subsequently had an impact on the patterns and types of employment that young people eventually obtained. In most cases, jobs that were obtained were precarious and almost always in the informal market.

In contrast to the objective macro structures, the subjective experiences of youth were exemplified by the lack of access to social networks needed to obtain and secure decent jobs that were largely dependent on the social networks that a person is previewed to. Spatial segmentation and discrimination amongst groups was also seen to further reinforce the inequalities seen in education and the labour market.

A perspective from EU Countries

SWTS remained to be a persistent challenge due to young people’s lack of experience and work-related competencies, as well as the lack of experience in searching for jobs. Implementation of dual systems whereby young people are educated while simultaneously gaining work-related experience has shown to be effective in addressing these challenges.

SWTS features remarkable heterogeneity across EU countries. Cross-country differences in SWTS that arise at the beginning of the transition process often remained constant in later stages. The heterogeneity across countries are important as it challenges the existence of a homogenous social model.

The main determinants shown to impact the duration of school to work transitions amongst young people in the EU were:

• Personal characteristics such as gender, age, education and migration status
• The different types of transition regimes
• Level of education attained by young people

By recognising that transitions regimes have a significant impact on the duration of transitions, the policy implications include:

• An increase in incentives directed at investment in education
• Revision of the whole structure of education and ‘school to work transition’ institutions, by favouring the development of work-related skills
• Policy tools that focus on ‘school to work transitions’ whereby emphasis should be put on:
  • Work-related learning for secondary education
  • Vocational education and apprenticeships that is incorporated at secondary and tertiary levels of education.

Youth, Gender and Informality in Colombia

In the case of Colombia, informality was presented as a key concern as it affects an overwhelming segment of the population. Young women were the most disadvantaged groups in the labour markets and often end up seeking employment in informal markets.

For young people in Columbia, this presented several limitations in the labour market as young people not only face high unemployment rates but also high informality rates. The informal workers often earn below the minimum wage and are subsequently faced with unsatisfying working conditions, and often have no health coverage or pension funds. Such factors have shown to also have a direct influence on workers’ productivity. In Columbia, informality often had a lower rate of return of education since most people were not employed in jobs that matched their type and level of education gained.

There is evidence that the penalty faced by informal workers is due to educational mismatches, in terms of wages, which are considerably higher than their formal counterparts. Finally, the case study on Columbia also showed that although the current challenge facing young people in emerging economies is the inadequate supply of formal jobs, the solution, however, is not to simply create jobs. Rather, the focus should be on the quality of jobs, and specific sectors in the formal sector. 

Important discussion points and questions that were raised after the panel presentations centred on how we should term and define ‘satisfactory transitions’ as it had implications on how various challenges are addressed. Factors relating to age brackets, legal working age, young people leaving school, gender discrimination, radicalisation, marginalization in remote rural areas, to name a few, need to be accounted.

Session summary

Youth transitions do not inevitably have a linear progression but are rather experienced as ‘stalled’ transitions. These ‘stalled transitions’, characterized by a lack of progression, occur due to a variety of reasons such as low wages, increase in accommodation costs, health, etc. Furthermore, the precarious nature of work demonstrates that the various forms of employment and jobs are in fact spaces of transition and has thus become a feature of young people’s work-life trajectories.

Moreover, while it has been the inclination to attribute the challenges faced by youth during their transitions as inefficiencies associated with the lack of experience, the lack of aspirations, the lack of motivation, etc.

A Moroccan Perspective

Young Moroccans often experience their transitions within the context of an unequal education system and an unskilled workforce, as well as shortage in the supply of technical skills needed in the labour market.

‘School to work’ transitions in Morocco have the following characteristics:

• A decrease in female participation despite the rise in education
• A decrease in youth emigration
• Transitory emigration
• A strong polarization in job qualities and the rise of jobs in the informal sectors
• A strong pressure for tertiary education through universities
• An increase in the demand for vocational training institutions

With these challenges, public policies aimed at addressing ‘school to work transitions’ have shown their limitations. For example, the labour protection system in Morocco does not address the inherent inequalities of the school system and labour system protects incumbents but doesn’t protect new arrivals.

In highlighting the weakness of public policies influencing ‘school to work’ transitions, as well as the experience of inclusion and inequality, Moroccan youth have put forth their demands for equality and social inclusion that has led to amendments and drafting of the new 2011 Constitution.

As such, the policy recommendations pointed to an integrated set of employment and training policies, and decentralized investment policies tailored for the mobilization of the employment opportunities, whilst also taking advantage of the digital technologies.

Youth Transitions in the Deindustrialised North: The Case of the UK

Underemployment and precarity to be the new normal for young people in de-industrialised cities. The study also showed that the ongoing youth transitions impacted not only disadvantaged communities but also the middle class.

However, it was noted that UK's policy in addressing unemployment amongst youth misrecognised unemployment as a personal failing rather than an outcome of deep-set, long-term structural shifts in the global economy such as the massive deindustrialisation of places like Teesside. Furthermore, the ‘upskilling’ strategy enforced in the UK labour policy was stated during the presentation, as a policy that largely ignored the scale and the persistence of low-paid employment within the UK.

As a result of such policies, young people are therefore misled into obtaining skills and qualifications through vocational training that have little to no value to match the needs of the labour market. The UK Policy, as with a lot of other labour policies, tends to treat unemployment challenges as the personal failures of young people rather than the inherent systemic labour market obstacles.

Demographic Dividend or Disaster? Labour Market Opportunities for the Youth in India

The current demographic structure of India indicated a falling dependency ratio and a dominance of youth in the overall population. Although having a young and active population may have its advantages, the case study demonstrated the major challenges and impacts, a large youth population has on the labour markets.

In the case of India, a large portion of youth are indeed educated, but this, in turn, has put a lot of pressure in the labour market not only in terms of the labour markets inability to absorb its young population, but the pressure to meet the aspirations and expectations of the new arrivals. As a result of more young people becoming highly educated, there has been an increased pressure for the labour market to create better jobs.

Furthermore, while youth entry into the labour market has dropped, the case study on India showed that there has been an equal decline in number of jobs available for youth. Statistics indicate that as much as 20 million jobs from the manufacturing, construction, services and agriculture sectors have been destroyed. The varying implications have therefore been a) an increase in unemployment figures, b) a greater demand for better wages and job security for those that get employed and c) higher reported incidents of underemployment for the majority of youth who end up becoming self-employed.

Policies should focused on the need to promote specific employment-intensive sectors and skills development programs that addresses the core challenges of the Indian labour market.

Socioeconomic Determinants of Youth NEETs and their Family

In the case of Thailand, NEET youth between the ages of 15-24 years are seen to be losing their human capital potential and are at risk of being not only excluded from the labour market but also being underemployed.  NEET youth come from poor income households, as well as high-income households. As seen in other countries, a gender gap exists in Thailand whereby young females are most likely to be part of NEET. Cultural practices such as early marriages and the dissuasion for girls to pursue education are linked to the gender disparity among NEET youth.

As with the case of Thailand, primary determinants of youth becoming NEET are attributed to the macro level dissonance between the demand and supply of jobs. At a micro level, the category of NEET arises from low skills and low levels in education amongst youth. While the key factors influencing NEET youth in rich households is attributed to the lack of aspirations and family support, NEET youth from low-income households were documented to attribute their statuses to the lack of education, employment opportunities and access to the limited job options available. 

Furthermore, the high level of school dropouts amongst youth was shown to significantly increase the risk of youth being NEET.

Policy recommendations:

• Policy directives need to focus on the heterogeneity of youth population in order to adequately address their respective challenges
• Policies in education should focus on reducing the risk of youth becoming NEET
• Stakeholders need to involve local communities in the conversation on how to create and sustain decent jobs
• Career guidance for youth should be leveraged with life coaching at an early stage
• Education systems should promote life- long learning practices such as apprenticeships.
• Proposed interventions should also emphasise the role of social capital and social networks in the search for employment amongst NEETs.

Political considerations were stressed as important, because at its core, politics is about choices and therefore reflective of the prioritisation of these choices. Since youth are often disproportionately influenced by political decisions made by the elite, it therefore important to include politics in the conversation on youth transitions. Policies, which are often reflective of the political climate of a country are important as they invariably end up shaping and influencing social and economic spheres of life. The inclusion of women’s contribution will not only aid in closing the gender disparity amongst NEETs but also allow and account for young women’s unpaid work as part of the work experience during their transitions.

Session summary

The session addressed the nexus between the future of agriculture and future of work, as well as focusing on the future of environmental transitions. It is important to understand how does youth engagement and entrepreneurship act as a driver in this transition process that looks at environmental, ecological and social aspects.

The situation for young people in rural areas is especially challenging. The case of Africa was cited, with 400 million new labour market entrants predicted for the continent by 2030. There is a need to look at the absorption capacity of labour intensive sectors such as agriculture, where there are a lot of untapped potentials and resources for farm and off-farm employment, both in the food systems upstream and downstream, as well as in the transition towards the green economy, which in turn can generate new opportunities (e.g. waste management, greener agriculture, new technologies, and investment for youth entrepreneurship). Youth cannot do this by themselves: they need political stimulation and access to productive resources, including land, financial services, and skills training for innovative technologies. 

The Evolution of the Agri-food Sector and Job Creation in Sub-Saharan Africa

With a unique demographic increase occurring in the region, there is now a youth bulge[1] as well as a strong urbanization process in action. The rural population, however, remains important. Limited economic diversification has led to the absorption capacity of a growing young labour force becoming a core policy issue. Currently, jobs in the region are predominantly in the informal sector, family agriculture, and very small household enterprises. With employment alternatives such as services being challenged by competition and technological change, attention turns towards agriculture, there are many questions that are still up for consideration.

In the specific context of agriculture in the region, the growth regime is challenged because of global change, and climate change. However, challenges for policymakers include sustainability (depletion, impact of climate change), availability of farm land, low returns and low farmer’s incomes, productivity gap and competition, and the status of family farming. It is yet to be identified which development model is going to be the best for the agriculture and agri-food sectors.

There are major knowledge gaps existing in the labour content in the agri-food sector. This is a substantial obstacle for policy-making which requires for investment for research on labour content.

Access to Land in an Intergenerational Perspective – The Case of Cambodia

Cambodia has seen a process of massive large-scale land acquisitions (land grabs). The gender dimension was also raised, as women face more difficulty in the Cambodian labour market. In Cambodia, young households show a higher share of cash crops (cassava and cashew), as young people need cash, so they turn more to cash crops for higher profit. However, cash-crops are not very profitable, and it has led to a drop in the popularity of subsistence farming. The lack of land, land title, limits their access to credit from the banks for developing farming activities. They turn to informal borrowing (loan sharks). Migration was also highlighted as being a challenging dimension to youth in agriculture.  Access to land and the fragmentation of land, combined with the migration aspect and land acquisitions, are a huge obstacle and a problem for youth in the region. Cambodia also has a visible lack of youth policies. There needs to be a strong mandate for organizations to aid members to further think of policy support, and create a regulatory framework for action.

Young People and Agricultural Commercialization in Africa

Some unemployed youth choose to go into agriculture until they find work with the main motivation being that of survival, they see it as a temporary solution to a bigger problem. The agricultural activities conducted due to this motivation are not always sustainable. The lack of access to information regarding sustainable farming, which needs attention from the international community.

Providing better support for youth can sustain them in agriculture for the long-term. It is also of key importance to ensure that the agricultural livelihoods that youth are pursuing are also leading to agricultural transformation in tandem. It was recommended that the international community expand their thinking on the direction where we are heading in the next 10-20 years, and connects the solutions we are designing for the agricultural sector at large together with youth transitions.

Including youth in policy dialogue is important, so that they can participate in conceptual designs of programs, as well as influencing policies and processes. 

There also remains a problem of reconnecting the dots of the specific youth challenge of accessing employment, and the evolution of the agricultural sector. Breaking down the silo between the two was recommended, with a change of perspective that would bring the employment debate into the debate of agriculture. As it stands, the challenge is that there has not been a depth of policies that connect with other policies regarding employment and agriculture.

Another question that arose was how to make agriculture attractive to young people, to make it a profitable, stable, and sustainable path. Recommendations from the panel included a need for economic policies that would stimulate favourable economic behaviour for agriculture. The case of Africa was cited as an example where currently resources for agriculture are low. In Tanzania for example, the budget for agriculture is at 2.6%, although the majority of population depends on agriculture for their livelihoods.

A further question raised regarded productivity, and whether it was really possible to keep small farming relevant, or whether it would in fact be interesting to look at policies that tax large-scale farming better and invest it into a future oriented program for youth. Overall, investing in small farming systems was recommended as although it does not show impacts quickly, the outcomes are more sustainable in the long-term.

[1] A large share of the population being comprised of children and young adults, leading to potential for future social and political instability if satisfactory employment is not found

Session summary

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and digital work poses particular challenges as most future jobs will continue to rely less on the physical labour of humans. In addition to the automation of jobs in key sectors, the rise in the number of jobs in the digital economy such as online job platforms, app-based, software-mediated work is also seen to be a defining feature of the future of work. The low-cost and easy accessibility of data has contributed significantly to the rapid adoption of work in the digital economy. The core questions, therefore, arise from whether the workforce will capture the potential of the digital economy or whether it will fall victim to the challenges.

Digitalization and Transformation of Young People’s Work Experience in the Global South, Argentina and Uruguay and Chile

Young people, who live, work and buy from the digital economy, shared a common emotion of joy whilst participating in the digital economy. In asking young people how they felt in working in the digital economy, young people revealed that the digital economy afforded them the flexibility of time which allowed them to feel more organised and in more control of their own lives. Furthermore, young people also expressed that participating in the digital economy provided them with a learning environment whereby they felt challenged as well as the assurance that they were doing things the right way.

The study also revealed that the work young people did in the digital economy gave them a sense of power, excitement and challenge. It also evoked feelings of confidence, joy and efficiency. Similar emotions were also evoked when youth were asked on their feelings on being able to buy/purchase and consume goods and services from the digital economy. 

Digital Platforms and regulations

The report on the ‘Digital labour platforms and the future of work’. demonstrated that a disproportionate number of young people are engaged in the digital economy. Furthermore, although young people are often considered as ‘digital natives’ in that they tend to perform better on these platforms compared to adults, it was shown that young people in the digital economy are still susceptible to challenges that are prevalent in the conventional labour market. Such challenges include low wages, poor working conditions and precarious nature of jobs.

However, it was noted that the digital economy also poses its own set of challenges. Work in the digital economy does not offer conventional protections afforded to workers. For instance, workers often faced the absence of wage protection mechanisms since those engaged in the digital economy are classified as independent contractors. Furthermore, since workers are considered independent contractors, online work is without the provision of social security and other work-related benefits.

As a result,  workers are often faced with the  heightened  sense of precarity due to the significant time spent when looking for work, the absence of stipulated minimum wage/working hour protections for those that find work, and the lack of wage and job security that is directly influenced to the subjective experiences and ratings of clients/customers. As an example, it was mentioned that workers often relied on the ratings of clients/customers, which in most cases had a direct impact on the contractor’s ability to find future work.  Moreover, the absence of neutral mechanisms for dispute resolution and redress with clients and platform operators adds to the precarious nature of work in the digital economy 

Most digital work does not have a career path trajectory that allows for its workers to work on and build from. Moreover, traits like work experience gained from previous jobs are not easily validated nor accounted for. Finally, the oversupply of workers than of jobs on these platforms means that in some instance, contractors pay working or joining fees to gain access to certain jobs/clients on respective platforms.

To address these challenges, the ILO has called for an international governance system specifically for digital labour platforms that sets and requires the respect of certain minimum rights and protections.

Authorities from respective countries are therefore encouraged to use pre-existing data available from these digital platforms to enact effective policies. For example, by accessing data on wages earned on existing platforms, authorities can use these data points to set a minimum wage rate for platform operators.

A Youth Inclusive Future of Work

Young people in entry-level jobs are often found to be most vulnerable to changes brought forth by the automation of industries. Furthermore, although young people are often considered as “digital natives”, most young people feel inadequately equipped with the right ICT and digital skills needed in the digital economy.

With studies illustrating that over half of the current platform workers are reported to be under the age of 35, young people are disproportionately at risk of facing challenges in the digital economy. These challenges include:

• The precarious nature of work in the digital economy,
• Unstable flow of income as jobs are not always guaranteed
• The lack of basic rights such as paid maternity leave or sick leave
• The inability to organise through unionisation and collective bargaining
• The exclusion from social protection systems since most existing systems are based on insurance and employment contributions which do not align with the nature of platform work.

However, despite the challenges, case studies from various countries have demonstrated ways of addressing some of the said challenges. In Denmark for example, platform workers were able to join a union that guaranteed workers a minimum wage and social protection.

Other recommendations presented in addressing these challenges attributed to the gig economy included:

• Investing in education for young people especially those that are vulnerable, such as young women and disabled youth
• Incentivising and the investment in jobs that can’t be taken over by machines, such as jobs that focus on creativity, interpersonal skills, etc.
• Public employment services that collaborate with young people in order to educate and inform youth on the types of employment contracts and the implications for self-employment

It was further stressed that although the gig economy has its advantages and that it opens up various work opportunities for young people, it shouldn’t be seen as a panacea to the problems relating to unemployment. The same inequalities in the regular economy, such as discrimination, gender pay gaps, are also reproduced in the gig economy.

Session Summary

Young migrants move due to a variety of complex social, economic and cultural conditions in their home countries, primarily because of  lack of job and educational opportunities. Young migrants face a range of problems throughout the migratory process because they often take unsafe routes and find themselves in vulnerable and dangerous positions, especially when taking South-South migratory routes. Furthermore, upon arrival in a host community, many young people experience racism and xenophobia, as well as a lack of social mobility and an inability to integrate effectively.

There has been an overall increase in migration in absolute terms. There is a similar distribution of youth migrants in many continents, but that most migrants are located in Asia and Europe.

Young Women and Mobility – The Case of Tunisia

Lack of power can be reflected in the everyday life experiences of young women. The results of the research show that there is a 50/50 chance of women being subject to violence, mugging or sexual assault when they leave their homes; that sexual harassment is very common on public transport; and that legally, there is no mechanism for addressing this problem. Furthermore, the research demonstrated that women plan their journeys on a multi– function basis, by safety and not by convenience. Women are underrepresented in the transport industry in general, and those who drive buses and collective taxis tend to do so in mornings only, in safer areas. There is a need for greater planning and investment in the transport system, . Increasing the number of buses would make a better system of transport of women, as well as improving the quality of the buses. In order to make change in the future, women’s organisations want to focus on changing the culture in transport by making men accountable for their actions. In addition to this, an increase in foreign investment in the transport system insists upon gender-based violence codes of practice, driving the government to improve conditions.

Rural Youth Migrations in Sub-Saharan Africa

In Africa, where there has been huge demographic growth in recent years, most migration within Africa was internal, and people were moving to different regions within the country. There has been a diversification of activities within labour and agricultural practices. Migratory trends are changing because young people have less access to inheritance and less opportunity to build houses and to access specific jobs. Because of the limited access to land, any climate shock puts their livelihood under high stress. Men therefore start to alternate their own land. Many people move away from the villages in order to find employment, but almost nobody moves back to their home village. In response to this problem, the Mozambique government has adopted strategies to promote better access to land to access social capital through strong social networks and through the diversification of resources. The narrative about youth transitions and participation in employment needs to be rethought, and specifically in Sub-Saharan Africa, and that young people should be re-engaged in farming. There is a need to connect agriculture with rural development as a sector in order to increase the number of people who remain on their land and to decrease migration.

Policy Coherence for Improved Labour Migration with Specific Reference to West Africa

Labour migration pointing out that there are an estimated 164 million migrant workers around the globe, of which 30.6 million are young migrant workers. The he majority of migrant workers are located in North America or in Northern and Western Europe, and that there is an increasing number of migrant workers going to middle and upper – middle income countries. It is often difficult to obtain age and gender disaggregated data about migration.

It is needed to improve governance and policy implementation in West Africa in order to ensure that migrants’ needs are being met. In many countries, migration remains the responsibility of different ministries and institutions on the national level, as a result of which public employment services often fail to integrate migrants successfully. It is needed to integrate migration policies on the global level, in order to provide migrants with more opportunities. It is also critical to enhance skills development, increase labour market opportunities, provide technical assistance to member states and enhance reliable statistical data collection and analysis.

More research must be conducted about the drivers of migration according to gender specificities. Furthermore, research shows that different approaches adopted by policy makers towards education and employment policies for young migrants made it difficult for them to integrate effectively into society. In global estimates, there was a decrease in the number of female migrant workers who are faced with multiple vulnerabilities. However, it continues to remain difficult for women to integrate into the workplace and the host community, as they often migrate for their families.  Although a lot of migrants are highly qualified, many do not have legal status, meaning that they do not find opportunities that equate to their needs. Policies must be adapted and implemented in order to support these specific needs.

Session Summary

There are many known issues from robots to digitalization, and demographic imbalances that are leading to labour mobility challenges, as well as the impacts of changing environments, climate change, and urbanization.

Professional Education and Adaptation to Changing Labour Market Conditions– The Case of Russia

In Russia, like many other countries, the challenge lies in decent job creation, public-private partnership development, the harmonization of relationships between labour market and educational sphere, and how to use further education as an instrument for transformational change. Labour market risks in the country include regional differentiation, informal employment, unprotected employment, overemployment, slower career progress with increasing of retirement age, and excessive demand for higher education. The Russian federal government has implemented different youth policies according to the different regions with proven success, with the regional programs complementing the federal measures on a targeted and localized level. Success also came from the implementation of educational organizations that develop skills through professional orientation development, apprenticeships and internship, individual coaching, and further professional education. These have had a strong positive impact on the labour market and competitiveness for youth overall.

Higher education cannot currently react rapidly to the changes in the labour market, so there is an existing imbalance between the labour market and the education market. The use of combining further educational programmes with higher education has helped youth in this area to bridge the gap. Another success story was that of the public-private partnership of the ILO, Russian Government and LUKOIL creating a roadmap for youth employment promotion. Through the development of innovative measures in the labour market, labour subsidies, and youth entrepreneurship programs, all the youth that participated in the pilot were subsequently permanently employed, thus demonstrating the advantages and potentials in tripartite public-private partnerships.

Structural Change, Skills Demand and Overeducation in Tunisia

There is a need to further research the links between structural change and skills-based technical change. This is in order to develop our observations of the dynamics of skilled versus unskilled labour demand, and how to better deal with demographic changes that will create a “youth bulge” and its effects on an already saturated labour market. Following the 2010-11 Jasmine Revolution, Tunisia is seeing a significant drop in hiring from the highest skill category, with less business occurring at the highest skill levels. The basic issue was that there are consequences to the huge increase of education in the MENA region, with mass graduate unemployment occurring across the board. In Turkey there has been an increasing demand of skills for productivity, which has not been observed in Tunisia.

Youth Education and Aspirations: Insights from PISA2018

There has been a clear change in demand for skills in the economy. A key question he raised for consideration was whether there is anything that schools can do to better prepare youth for the transitions they are going to go through? 

The labour market is changing very rapidly, with 50% of jobs in the next 20 years expected to radically transform due to automation. With young people staying in education for increasingly longer periods of time, results from studies have shown that they are significantly struggling when they enter into the labour market. This in turn raises questions about the decisions they make, and it was also highlighted that these decisions are becoming more difficult.

In a survey conducted on employment expectations and aspirations for youth, results showed that aspirations and expectations are very gendered, with a notable difference between the types of jobs girls and boys would consider as being within their grasp. Another key finding was that expectations and aspirations remain centred around very traditional jobs, more pertinent to the 19-20th century than the 21^st. When looking at the very specific challenges we face in the 21st century, there is a fundamental necessity to address the new labour environment challenges that young people will face: from automation to digitalization, as well as climate change. The success stories of both Switzerland and Germany implied that career guidance considered to be of a of high quality, and as a result there are lower patterns of occupational concentration.

Disadvantaged youth were also highlighted as needing attention from the international community, with Mann’s studies showing that even amongst the highest performing students, many do not expect to go to university. Over 20% of students observed were reported as being “misaligned” between school performance and career expectations, with social background playing a key role in this mismatch. A clear policy recommendation was to focus on career guidance in a new and improved way. With participation in career development activities increasing, there is space to start effective career guidance at an early age, and connect classroom learning with future economic lives. Providing easy access to trustworthy labour market information and creating spaces where advice and guidance from well-trained and impartial professionals reaches young people would address information asymmetries about specific professions, broaden understanding, and challenge stereotyping.

Education for Displaced Youth and Children

Education in emergencies (EIE) provided an interesting case study of how different sectors should work synchronously and more effectively, in order to get better efficiency out of their practices. Projections show that there will be 600 million people displaced by 2030 due to violence, war, and weather events. With a humanitarian crisis creating a simplicity of governance, school-based service interventions have been shown to have significant impacts on improving the outcome for children regarding career. It was recommended that we need to achieve access to school in tandem with funding education itself. Taking a holistic and interconnected approach meant that schools were used as centres to reach children for immunization, WASH, etc. Out of 1000 basic education learning centres, an estimated 90,000 children were reached over the

Takeaways for best practice included that cultural and contextual sensitivity is required when working with displaced populations, as there is no one-size-fits all approach. olicy challenges that emerged from the case study also focused on the role of communication in achieving successful interventions. Often, the school day was planned alongside another intervention, creating coordination failures. These also occurred due to ineffective communication, lack of inclusivity, and high staff turnover. Flexibility in funding allowed for Cox’s Bazar to be pragmatic. In the future, it was recommended that it would be ideal to take a closer look at the integration of education with other services, in order to optimize the work with youth within displaced populations. Advocacy and funding are key, and especially flexible funding.

Preventative interventions such as earlier and better quality career guidance and economic reforms are important, and the use of research to better understand what preventative measures we need in our interventions is paramount.  When asked what youth can do to compete with older profiles in the labour market, skills development was highlighted as an important area, alongside the need for an improved economy that absorbs the “youth bulge”, achievable through innovation and economic reforms.

 Suggested policy recommendations included creating economic reforms that would create bigger markets to stimulate decent job creation, with positions that could compete with private jobs. Long-term structural transformation was also deemed necessary, as well as using public-private partnerships and projects as an effective measure. Teaching the private sector about what is their benefit in job creation for youth, was also recommended, as well as investing in youth education, where youth are trained for future work has also been shown to be effective.

Policy recommendations included optimization of government portfolio of interventions and investments and creating change in public financing for schools. Focusing on the early years and preparation is also important, as studies have shown career-related learning starting from primary school as being beneficial. Career guidance that involves drawing the connection between the classroom and youth labour aspirations, and providing experiential information, such as giving young people multiple opportunities to job shadow and attend job fairs, has been proving to be beneficial. The vocational educational training model was cited as being a useful example, as it uses a system of microcredits that allows for education to adapt to the needs of the changing labour market, as well as mega-trends that are having a major impact, including automation, ageing population, migration patterns, and creating skill-sets in youth that are relevant and attractive to employers.

Higher secondary education remains standardized, and does not yet react quickly to changes in the labour market. There is a clear need to close the gap between education systems and the world of employment, to make informed decisions. A lot of young people do not have easy access or advice to be able to make these informed decisions, and there is a need for a higher emphasis to be put on critical thinking, and soft skills. It is not just about making the private sector attractive, it is also about growing the social protection measures that people need around employment, to create a more holistically effective and supportive system for youth in transition. It is about investment in education, consumption, and how to give people the roles that are needed. People change occupations over time. The question that still remains open for research is will there be relevant occupations for youth in the future? 

Session Summary

Promoting youth entrepreneurship is a growing trend in youth policies to address the issue of the 67 million youth who are unemployed and the 126 million youth who are working poor. Youth entrepreneurship is also one of the thematic areas of the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, which brings groups and organizations as partners to achieve young peoples’ access to decent work. Susana Puerto confirmed that youth entrepreneurship interventions have brought positive impacts on youth employment with varying levels of success, at the same time she pointed out the vulnerability of youth entrepreneurship as many of them are self-employed by necessity and young entrepreneurs often face more difficulties.

Prospects and Challenges of Youth Entrepreneurship in Developing Countries–What are the Evidence and Policy Gaps?

In developing countries, youth entrepreneurial success depends on personal and environmental factors and the range of motivations and categories of youth entrepreneurs. “Out of necessity entrepreneurs” are the ones who cannot find other employment opportunities, while “Opportunity entrepreneurs” are the ones who start their business with the right set of skills, education/experience and interest. The “melting middle” of the entrepreneurship continuum are “Potential Entrepreneurs” who have the right skills and interests yet have not initiated any business, and “Promising Entrepreneurs” are already at the start-up phase or with an existing business. It is important to understand motives for youth entrepreneurs as different policies and incentives are needed to respond to different motives.  For example, financial support policies for youth entrepreneurs are useful yet it would not be enough for “Out of necessity entrepreneurs” as they would need more support such as skill training and mentorship etc.

Challenges and evidence gaps remain. The main obstacles in youth entrepreneurship are lack of/limited access to finance, entrepreneurial training, lack of/limited savings, gender and socio-cultural context, and personality traits such as socio-emotional skills. Prospects of international migration and remittances were mentioned as an important source of start-up capital for youth.

Does Aid for Trade Work for Youth?

According to youth entrepreneurship trends data, one in four young people describe themselves as self-employed or entrepreneurs: 40% start their business “out of necessity” and 60% of them are “opportunity entrepreneurs”. Youth entrepreneurship plays the role of catalyst for economic diversification and innovative solutions. In addition, youth entrepreneurship can create more employment for youth as young managers tend to hire more young people.

A World Trade Organization survey of more than 100 governments identified that the most necessary factors supporting youth entrepreneurship are access to finance followed by access to information and business skills. To respond to the above needs and further promote youth entrepreneurship ITC’ interventions in various countries. ITC’s Aid for Trade for Youth Entrepreneurship provides management skills, mentorship, peer to peer learning support, as well as support for young women entrepreneurs and creating a favourable business ecosystem. Youth and trade strategies identify high potential value chains and needed staffing roles and skills in a country. This way, young people will be able to receive appropriate training and entrepreneurship support where gaps are identified. During the session, the advantage of tackling the challenges of youth unemployment and Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) competitiveness was highlighted because this will address the issue of skill mismatching for SMEs and youth entrepreneurship while creating a conducive national policy environment.

Further challenges and effective measures for youth entrepreneurship Including political and economic structural barriers, limited youth-led/centred entrepreneurship initiatives, lack of youth entrepreneur-friendly procurement policy, as well as the fact that governments often categorize youth entrepreneurship as part of social welfare policy instead of integrating it into the government's macroeconomic policy. The discussion also covered the necessary skill-sets for youth entrepreneurs, including classic business and management skills as well as soft skills such as critical and strategic thinking. The vulnerability and risks of youth entrepreneurship were acknowledged as youth entrepreneurs often earn less than those in formal jobs or have no alternative employment opportunities, and above all, there is a high rate of financial failures in entrepreneurship in general.

It is important to understand youth and youth entrepreneurs’ profiles as they are not homogeneous groups. It is, therefore, essential to understand youth needs, demographic background, and environmental contexts so that effective incentives can be identified for each youth group and necessary interventions can be tailored to fit the reality that youth are facing. There are proved positive effects of combining credit support and skill training, as well as incentivizing training service providers, such as payment upon the results, for youth entrepreneurship training.

Session Summary

There are unequal life opportunities for girls and boys in many countries, and women and girls are generally less resilient against climate shocks than their male counterparts. This, in turn, often compromises girls’ transition to adulthood and further exacerbates existing inequalities. Negative rainfall deviations and extreme weather increases labour participation and decreases school participation, especially amongst the impoverished. As a result of this, internal migration becomes a solution to counter the effects of climate change, becomes necessary. However, this is only possible for boys living in richer households. Overall, the research shows that there are policy implications and a knowledge gap in the literature about climate change. Policy implementers should take into consideration social norms when formulating policy interventions. Furthermore, results show that there is a need to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector by investing in irrigation systems, credit and insurance markets, land security. This is necessary because these are systems which often work against women and girls. There must be an expansion of infrastructure such as the electrification of rural areas, which would increase women’s labour opportunities, increase productivity, adopt environmental efficient programmes.

Young People’s Access to Land in Rural Nigeria

Young people face difficulty in accessing land in Nigeria. Land offers employment opportunities for young people in a country with high levels of youth unemployment. However, youth participation in employment has been declining over the recent years because working in agriculture is not seen as lucrative enough for young people, and they are more interested in working in white collar jobs. In addition to this, young people face many challenges when they work in the agricultural sector because they may suffer from a bad harvest, a lack of access to land and there are also cases of land grabbing. Furthermore, most young people don’t have access to collaterals and have to follow informal credit markets. The major finding of this research is that land security is a critical determinant of young people’s engagement in agricultural practices. Therefore, there was a need to provide young people with access to land by engaging policymakers and  changing cultural and political practices. 

Inequalities and Young Peoples’ Civic Engagement in Ethiopia

There are dominant patterns of inequality in political institutions in Ethiopia, which thereby affect the way in which young people engage with politics. Young people are disengaged from politics because politics are historically associated with the institutional life and did not represent their interest.  People from the older generations controlled these institutions, and so young people did not have their needs represented. Institutional life and political parties also caused land disputes, because older generations maintained control over the land. They have also failed to contain ethnic inequalities, a major problem in the country. Overall, it is essential to understand the historical context when considering young people’s transition to the workplace. Policy makers find ways in which to engage young people when making decisions, particularly in regions, like Ethiopia, where there has historically been little engagement of young people in these matters.

This session emphasized the need for more effective policies to be implemented to address the problems associated with agriculture in developing contexts. This should include investing in irrigation and other systems, in order to encourage Africans living in arable regions to remain on their land, rather than seeking employment elsewhere. Furthermore, a series of interventions should be created to address problems associated with climate change, including a reform of the education system, allowing people to understand how to react to climate change in order to remain on their land. Studies need to be conducted looking at the negative shocks on intra-household distribution of climate change, including an analysis of how to support females who are at an increased risk of its negative effects. In Africa, existing societal norms and cultural understandings of land distribution must be taken into consideration when implementing policy. Finally, young people should be engaged in political and civil movements in order to ensure that policies are being implemented to support everybody.

Session Summary

The role of the young people in the Arab Revolutions of the 2010s—from Tunisia and Egypt to the current uprisings in Sudan, Lebanon and Iraq—has been so prominent that some have referred to these episodes as ‘youth revolutions’. Are youths the new proletariat of our neoliberal times? What kind of politics do youth espouse? Here, I propose an analytical lens that might help understand the meaning of ‘youth politics’. I understand ‘youth politics’ in terms of the conflicts that revolve around claiming or defending youthfulness. But ir is mediated by the position of the young in class, gender, racial, sexual and other involved social structures. In other words, the political outlook of a young person may be shaped not just by the exclusive preoccupation with ‘youthfulness’, but also by his/her position, for instance, as citizen, poor, female, or a member of a sexual minority. To serve as transformative agents, the young people would often have to go beyond their exclusive youthful claims to draw on the broader concerns of citizenry. Such was the conduct of the Arab youth who played a leading part in the recent uprisings.