Why
The digital economy is rapidly transforming the employment landscape across industries, including financial services, health, entertainment, transportation and of course, information and communication technologies (ICT). Millions of jobs requiring advanced digital skills will be created in the coming decade, but many countries are projecting a shortfall of skilled workers to fill these jobs. While young people are often considered “digital natives”, the reality is that the majority do not possess job-relevant digital skills. In particular, jobs requiring coding and other advanced ICT skills are going unfilled.
HOW
The growth potential of the digital economy presents an opportunity for tackling the youth employment challenge. In June 2017, the ILO and the ITU launched a campaign to bridge the current skills gap. The goal is to equip five million young people with digital skills – both basic and advanced – by 2030. This will be achieved by mainstreaming digital skills into school curricula, establishing comprehensive on-the-job training systems and mobilizing job creators in the public and private sector to employ young people in digital-centric jobs. There will also be a strong focus on fostering youth-led digital entrepreneurship.
WHO
The ILO and the ITU are committed to leading on this thematic priority. Decent Jobs for Youth brings together a growing number of partners who are committed to identifying and scaling up effective strategies for equipping young people with digital skills.
Youth Participation&Employment in the MENA region
Launched in 2017, the Youth Participation and Employment (YPE) programme is a five-year initiative, implemented by Oxfam IBIS (Denmark), and funded by the Danish Arab Partnership program. YPE aims to improve economic opportunities for young women and men in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. By building diverse and effective partnerships, it seeks to achieve three outcomes: (i) strengthened technical and life skills that enable young people to actively engage in society; (ii) increased organisational capacity of institutions, the private sector, entrepreneurs and communities to support young people; (iii) enhanced advocacy and dialogue between youth, public and private institutions, and business.
System change for youth-led entrepreneurship
With its network of local and global partners, Development Alternatives creates economic opportunities through micro enterprise development for youth and women in underserved regions of India. It aims to create a culture of entrepreneurship through the interconnected objectives of: Reducing socio-economic, intergenerational and gender barriers faced by aspiring entrepreneurs Nurturing constructive communities that facilitate desirable norms that ensure quality jobs and social well-being for its members Building networks of collaboration between workers in the informal sector, solution providers and policy makers to build a robust support system for entrepreneurship Mainstreaming enabling mechanisms for entrepreneurship-led job creation