Enhancing Youth Employability

                This post is a summary of the book published in 2013 with the incomplete title above at http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---edifp_skills/documents/publication/wcms_213452.pdf

                Skills development is essential for increasing and sustainability of interprises, and improving the employability of workers. In order to secure job as well as navigate in the labour market, young women and men need the technical skills to perform specific tasks as well as core work skills. Employability results from several factors - a foundation of core skills, access to education, availability of training opportunities, ability and support to take advantage of continuous learning. Skills have become increasingly important in the globalized world. The employment situation of young people today is characterized specifically by high unemployment and lower quality jobs and difficult transitions into decent work, which combined, contribute to the detachment of the current generation from the labour market altogether. At the same time as the world struggles with unemployment, paradoxically, it is experiencing a skills shortage. Developing core work skills help individuals to understand the labout market, make more informed choices about their options in education, training, and self-employment. They also help them become better citizens and contribute to their communities. Many young people face difficult in finding a job because of the mismatch between their education/training and labour market requirements. Innovation and market developments have turned the world into a fast-changing environment.  The greatest challenge lies in the technology and knowledge intensive sectors that also have the highest potential for economic growth and employment. Core skills for employability underpin one does - at school, at work and at home. We communicate all the time and use ICT more and more each day. Good quality primary and secondary education, complemented by relevant vocational training and skills development opportunities, prepare future generations for their productive lives, endowing them with the core skills that enable them to continue learning. Secondary school is an important channel through which young people acquire skills that improve opportunities for good jobs. High quality secondary education that caters for the widest possible range of abilities and interests is vital to set young people in the path to the world of work as well as to give countries the educated workforce they need to compete in today's tech driven world. Lower secondary school extends and consolidates the basic skills learned in primary school; upper secondary school deepens general education and adds technical and vocational skills. Given the evidence on the success of innovative quality secondary education and training in transmitting core skills for employability, more needs to be done to get young people into secondary education and help them complete it. For many adolescents the education system is not sufficient flexible to adapt to their needs, and the quality of their basic education is insufficient to allow an easy transition; for others, their families can not afford it. This youth skills deficit is being felt all over the world. In developing countries, unskilled young people are being trapped in poverty for life. In order to address this deficit, disadvantaged youth need good quality training in relevant skills at lower secondary school and the upper secondary school curricula should provide a balance between vocational and technical skills. To improve the opportunities for youth to gain access to good jobs, secondary school has to be more inclusive, offering the widest possible range of opportunities in order to meet young people's different abilities, interests and background. The power of ICT to reach and teach the marginalized has the potential to break down some of existing barriers. Multiple and varied strategies are needed to address complex issues affecting learning for all in the developing world. ICT allows learners to learn inside and outside the classroom, in a greater variety of ways and to be creative. This is a different learning culture, featuring: independent learning, learners producing knowledge themselves, more content available in internet, connection to experts and access to resouces globally, access to learning material, more motivation. The key messages are: 1) The best way to acquire core skills for employability is on the job. But many employers are not prepared to take on new recruits without demonstrated ability in these skills. So individuals and education and training systems must do more. 2) Secondary school is an important channel through which young people acquire skills that improve opportunities for good jobs. High quality secondary school and vocational training that caters for the widest possible range of abilities, interests and backgrounds is vital to set young people on the path to the work. 3) Teaching skills requires innovative ways of integrating these skills into core academic content. 4) Given that innovative secondary education and good quality training can trasmit core skills for employability, more needs to be done to improve access, participation and completion at this level. 5) Improving access to, participation in and completion of secondary education is enhanced by a system that: Improves the quality of primary education, makes more relevant to the world of work, offers technical and vocational training, designs an effective flexible curriculum at upper secondary school, uses hands-on learning techniques and modular course design, combines civic and digital education to empower youth to understand the challenges that face their communites and work together to solve them. offers an online programme for specialized technologies,