One in every five Caribbean youth aged 15-29 neither work nor study

There are 32 million young people in Latin America and the Caribbean — one in every five youth aged 15-29 — that neither work nor study. In order to prepare these young people for workplace success, job training programmes need to go beyond technical instruction and teach “life skills”, such as communication, reliability, and teamwork. This is one of the main findings of the report, “Give Youth a Chance: An Agenda for Action”, published by the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF), a member of the Inter-American Development Group.
The report looks back on the most important lessons learned from the MIF’s portfolio of over 120 youth employment and entrepreneurship training projects around the region, and sets out priorities for its work with the next generation of young people in Latin America and the Caribbean. A distinctive feature of all MIF youth employment projects is their life skills component.
This push for teaching youth life skills has been validated by employers participating in MIF programmes. They have consistently reported that, above all, they want to hire employees who possess workplace-ready skills, such as communication, teamwork, motivation and responsibility. Technical skills, they say, can be learned on the job.
Likewise, a 2010 IDB survey shows that about 80 per cent of employers in Argentina, Brazil and Chile indicated that positive socio-emotional attitudes, or life skills, such as empathy, adaptability, and responsibility, among others, are the most difficult capacities to find among workers.
In addition to teaching youths the life skills employers want, many projects also introduce complementary life planning activities in this component. These activities help youths to assess who they are, their aspirations for the future, and to define realistic steps toward achieving these goals.
Regarding the duration of the life skills component, the MIF projects have experimented with a wide range of life skills training, from a minimum of 40 hours to a maximum of three months. This variation largely depends on the profiles of youth beneficiaries; typically, at-risk youth will require more life skills development.
In general, MIF projects have shown that the more time dedicated to life skills, the better. However, in many projects, depending on the complexity of the sector-specific skills, youths must learn, more hours are dedicated to the technical training component than to the life skills component. It is therefore important to apply life skills throughout the training process to help reinforce positive attitudes and behaviours and maximise teaching time for these skills.
Other lessons related to teaching life skills include: Trainer quality matters: Regardless of the length of time dedicated to life skills training, the quality of trainers is key. It is critical that trainers have warm, supportive, and enthusiastic personalities to build trust with the youths, as in many cases they serve as much needed positive role models.
For example, in a MIF project in Guatemala City with Grupo Ceiba, almost 90 per cent of the life skills and violence prevention trainers, or “mediators,” are also programme graduates.
Coming from the same turbulent communities, they know better than anyone how to get through to these at-risk youths, who in turn look up to them as examples of what they could become— responsible, caring, gainfully employed adults.
Providing quality training also requires that trainers can handle the added complications that come along with working with at-risk youths. Programmes should have links to social workers or psychologists who can support and train the staff on how to deal with especially difficult situations, as well as to provide counselling directly to youth who need extra support.
Interactive and participatory methods are especially relevant in gaining youths interest in learning and practising life skills. MIF projects have tested a variety of innovative approaches, including using sport, the performing arts, and technology (for example basic computer skills, e-mail, social networks, etc) to attract youths’ interest and imbue life skills in youths. Creative approaches can help programmes “speak” to youths in a way that makes sense to them, allowing life skills to resonate more effectively.