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Youth empowering

Achara Deboonme
The Nation October 28, 2012 1:00 am

With 90 per cent of the new job-seekers living in the developing world and unemployment youth rates across Asia forecast to steadily climb through 2017 - more than 14 per cent for Southeast Asian countries - it is clear to see why the alarms have begun to sound.

John B Trew, Youth Employment Specialist at Plan International, a UK charity, says putting greater emphasis on equipping the youth with necessary knowledge and skills is a must for the developing world.

"The Arab Spring is clear evidence of the transformational power that unemployed youth wield and it has been a decisive wake-up call for policy-makers. Idle and disenfranchised youth can overnight usher in social and economic unrest reverberating throughout global markets. High unemployment is the spark that has brought swarms of youth into the streets demanding greater attention and recognition of their plight," Trew said in document handed out by Plan.

Operating in 14 countries in Asia, Plan has provided vocational training to 10,000 youths who were unemployed, and aims to provide training to an additional 40,000 youth in the next five years.

This year, the charity and Accenture have furthered their cooperation in this area, targeting to benefit 7,000 youth in Thailand and Indonesia for a three-year period with a US$3.65-million grant.

In Thailand, they are targeting 2,700 of the most disadvantaged youth in the Northern (Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai), Eastern (Chon Buri and Rayong) and Southern (Phang-Nga and Phuket) regions.

The training delivered will utilise Plan expertise and experience in delivering demand-led skill-training in the region. The training is very much focused on the end result of ensuring employment for the trainees and caters to the needs of both youth and business. Training will be delivered in cooperation with local educational institutes and this will involve transfer of successful methodologies to these institutes. Where possible and appropriate, local experts will be identified and engaged in the creation of materials and resources, though Plan is committed to leveraging the best available resources to implement the programme. There is already significant experience within Plan Asia and a technical vocational education and training specialist has been recruited by Plan to lead the regional programme and provide technical support to all programmes, including Thailand. In Vietnam, 8,000 youth have been trained and given employment.

Here, training is designed to respond to the needs of young people based on rigorous situational analysis. Additional educational programmes are developed, such as entrepreneurship skills training for youth in mountainous areas, skills training and job-matching in Bangkok and supporting early childhood and primary education.

To effectively address the issue of youth unemployment, there are many issues that need to be tackled, from financial inclusion, effective national and global policies, appropriate education, enhancing the use of ICT in content and delivery of education and, of course, in creating the job opportunities for youth. The engagement of the private sector is a critical component of success and the most successful youth employment programmes that Plan runs involve close relationships with businesses.

"We will be approaching Thai companies to work with us in addressing this issue and would want to work with them to be able to address their business needs with regard to talent supply and staffing, while at the same time identifying productive and decent work for our target group. In this we gain a 'win-win' for both youth and business in Thailand. To start with, Plan Thailand and Accor are piloting the training of six young people [by Accor] in the hospitality industry with the view to getting employed by Accor hotels.

"We welcome business involvement in many of our initiatives and we would be happy to discuss ways of becoming involved. We firmly believe that by working with the private sector in partnership we can match business goals with development goals, creating greater societal impact more efficiently," Plan Thailand said in a written answer to The Nation's question.

Plan Thailand also works with children across the country in the areas of child protection and in the prevention of child labour. Integrated into the other programmes are financial literacy and comprehensive sexuality education.

To Jill Huntley, Accenture's senior director of corporate citizenship, this project is part of the global corporate citizenship initiative "Skills to Succeed" that was launched in 2009 to build skills that enable people around the world to participate in and contribute to the economy.

"Skills have become a key driver of economic empowerment for individuals and communities alike. In a rapidly changing world with competitive workforce pressures, the need is greater than ever to have the right skills to build confidence and capabilities that will open doors to employment in emerging and mature markets. At the same time, training aligns with the main focus for our company: training and developing people to progress in their careers and achieve higher levels of performance," she said.

Aside from Plan, the initiative is exercised with other strategic partners. Today, Accenture has more than 200 collaborative initiatives around the world, against 80 in 2009. Some of the non-profit organisations and NGOs it works with include Save The Children, Ashoka, Junior Achievement, VSO, Conexao, NetHope, Leonard Cheshire Disability and Youth Business International.

Thanks to a shared vision, Plan committed close to $2 million over a three-year period in 2011 to help provide more than 3,500 underprivileged young people with the skills to find employment. The $3.65-million grant followed the initiative, to expand efforts from India and Vietnam into Thailand and Indonesia.

"'Skills to Succeed' inspires our people and gives us an opportunity to create sustained impact in our communities. In 2010, we announced that, by 2015, 'Skills to Succeed' initiatives will equip 250,000 people around the world with skills to get a job or build a business. By the end of fiscal 2011, we had already equipped more than 160,000 people - nearly two-thirds of our goal of 250,000 people - with workplace and/or entrepreneurial skills," Huntley added.

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