Youth Employment - Good Practices

4 May 2012

A critical element of the current global jobs crisis is the struggle faced by young people in entering and remaining in the labour market. Young people are three times more likely than adults to be out of a job. According to ILO estimates, a total of 600 million new jobs will need to be created in the next ten years to absorb the current number of 200 million people unemployed worldwide and the 40 million annual growth in the labour force.

Out of the total number of unemployed, about 75 million, or around 40 per cent, are young people. If the estimated 152 million young people living on less than USD 1.25 per day are added to the number of unemployed youth, the number of youth in extremely vulnerable situations becomes 227 million.

A large number of public, private and civil society organizations are working on programmes to tackle the youth employment challenge. These initiatives can be further reinforced through strategic partnerships and by exchanging experience and good practice.

The ILO Youth Employment Programme has launched a two-phase call for nominations of good practices that have proven effective in promoting decent work for young people. All nominations will be evaluated based on 6 specific criteria: (i) relevance, (ii) efficiency, (iii) coherence, (iv) innovation, (v) sustainability and (vi) replicability.

In phase one of the call for nominations, the persons in charge of the top good practice from each region (Africa, Americas, Arab States, Asia and Europe) will be invited to the ILO Youth Employment Forum taking place in Geneva, Switzerland, from 23 to 25 May 2012. To participate in this call for nominations, you are kindly requested to complete, by 11 May 2012 before 12.00 Pm GMT, an online registration form that can be found on the Good Practices on Youth Employment platform ("Sign-up and share your good practice with the world"). In phase two, the call for nominations will remain open from 12 May to 30 June 2012.