BRIDGING THE GAP:

SUPPORTING YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY

A guide to business support for youth skills development

July 2017

BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
FOREWORD
Youth unemployment is a global challenge.
People aged 15-24 are three times as likely
as older people to be unemployed, with
youth jobless rates stuck around 13% for the
past several years. In 2016, 71 million young
people were out of work.1
Of those young people that do work,
growing numbers find themselves in
low-paid, unreliable and vulnerable
jobs. Globally, as many as 156 million
young workers are living in poverty;
in developing countries, more than
70% of young workers fall below the
poverty line.2
High rates of youth unemployment
and underemployment carry a
high cost to both the young people
concerned and their societies and
economies, in the form of lost
revenue, increased social costs, and
heightened inequality and social
tension that can threaten national and
global security.3
It therefore comes as no surprise that
youth employment ranks high on the
global development agenda. Youth
71
P 01
MILLION YOUTH
UNEMPLOYED
IN 2016
jobs and skills are specifically targeted Barclays, BRAC, Citi, the UKs
in the United Nations Sustainable Department for International
Development Goals, or Global Goals. Development and Pearson, with
the aim of adding to the knowledge
While on the one hand young
base around what works, and
people struggle to find decent work,
continuing the conversation about
on the other we consistently hear
how companies can best support
that employers struggle to fill their
young people into decent work while
vacancies because they cannot find
meeting core business needs.
candidates with the right aptitudes
and skills. Limited employability This guide captures key messages and
is preventing many young people lessons learnt as shared during the
from taking up the good entry-level Challenge engagement process. We
opportunities that do exist. share the guide with its framework
for action and best practice examples
We believe business has a key
in the hope that it will help provide
role to play in addressing youth
direction to companies wishing to
unemployment. The private sector
support youth employability, and
must drive the large-scale job creation
encourage more businesses to help
required to absorb the one billion
the worlds young people fulfil their
young people forecasted by the World
potential.
Bank to enter the job market in the
next decade.4 But there is also much
the private sector can do to help
Zahid Torres-Rahman
young people get ready for those
jobs, from providing skills training to Founder and Director,
offering workplace experience. Business Fights Poverty
Business Fights Poverty launched
the Youth Employability Challenge
with support from Anglo American,
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
BRAC works with 9,000 SMEs in Bangladesh, using
an apprenticeship model to provide skills training
and workplace experience to disadvantaged and
excluded youth, and achieving a remarkable 95%
job placement rate.
P 02
CONTENTS
P4 Executive Summary
P5 1. Why should business invest in youth employability?
P8 2. What skills do young people need to be employable?
P10 Case study 1 Pearson and Microsoft
P11 3. How can companies take action?
P13 Case study 2 Citi and Citi Foundation
P14 A framework for creating youth skills development programmes
P15 Step 1: Identify the demand for labor
P17 Case study 3 Barclays and Per Scholas
P19 Step 2: Understand supply side gaps
P20 Step 3: Design and implement a successful programme
P21 Pillar 1: The right content
P24 Case study 4 BRAC Skills Training for Advanced Resources (STAR)
P25 Pillar 2: Appropriate marketing and delivery mechanisms
P26 Case study 5 Marks & Spencer and The Princes Trust
P27 Pillar 3: Collaboration for impact and scale
P28 Case study 6 E4D/SOGA Employment and Skills for Eastern Africa
P29 Pillar 4: A funding model that fits
P30 Case study 7 Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
P31 Pillar 5: Results measurement rooted in employment
P32 Case study 8 CAP Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP-YEI)
P33 Suggested resources
P35 Acknowledgements
P36 Endnotes
P37 Methodology
P38 Bibliography
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
This guide is for human
resources, corporate
sustainability and
community investment
professionals interested
in enhancing youth
employability to meet their
own demand for labour or
to strengthen the markets
and societies in which they
operate. It should also be
useful for companies partners
in government, civil society,
and the donor community.
At the heart of the guide is a
framework for developing youth
skills development programmes.
Marks & Spencers partnership with The Princes The focus is on skills for jobs, rather
Trust addresses a core business need increased than entrepreneurship, another
potential route to youth employment.
demand for labour during peak retail periods
The guide should be useful to
while creating opportunities for vulnerable young
multinational and large national
people to hone their employability skills in a highly companies, and includes a number
supportive environment. of references to ways in which such
larger businesses can collaborate with
smaller companies including SMEs to
support youth employability.
P 03
Because employability is context-
specific, depending on industry,
culture, and other factors, the
framework provides an approach to
assessing demand and supply for
skilled young people and designing
a programme to bridge the gaps
there is no one-size-fits-all solution.
The guide also includes practical tips,
a selection of case studies illustrating
different aspects of the approach,
and recommended resources for
further information. The case study
selection represents a range of
initiatives across the broad spectrum
of development, most targeting
vulnerable or marginalised youth.
The guide is based on a series of
interviews and engagement events
that explored how business can
best support young people into
decent jobs. It is also available as a
living document at http://snipbfp.
org/2rMuyao, where additional
insights, tips, tools, and examples will
be shared.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The world is currently experiencing the biggest
youth population in history, but much of
the potential for growth and progress this
represents is being lost due to high rates of
under- and unemployment among young
people. There are not enough decent jobs for
young people; whats more, many of the jobs
that are available go unfilled because youth
lack the necessary employability skills.
There is a clear business case for
companies to invest in young peoples
skills development. Investing in youth
builds the foundations for future
business growth and innovation. In
a competitive labour market, taking
this issue seriously is essential for
talent recruitment and retention.
A young workforce is linked to
greater innovation, digital literacy
and optimisation of new media and
technology. Investing in young people
helps a business reach and generate
loyalty among future customers, and
strengthens its licence to operate.
Young people need a combination
of hard skills, soft skills and the right
P 04
Investing in youth builds the
foundations for future business
personal attributes to be employable. growth and innovation.
Soft skills are particularly valuable
because they are transferable and
less vulnerable to becoming obsolete
the education sector to help ensure
due to technological advances.
that young people are taught relevant
Workplace experience is another
skills, and sharing success stories to
critical component of employability:
inspire others to take action.
most employers want it, but too few
offer opportunities for young people Successful youth skills development
to acquire it. programmes start on the demand
side, identifying where current and
Labour force development is
future jobs for young people are,
traditionally the domain of the
followed by research and analysis that
public sector, but there are many
includes the voice of young people to
ways companies can help young
reveal what is preventing them from
people into work. Youth-supporting
taking up those opportunities. The
activities can be grouped into three
best programmes rest on five pillars
categories: core business practices, such
of good design: the right content,
as creating enabling hiring policies
including sufficient provision for
and practices, offering opportunities
soft skills training and workplace
to acquire workplace experience,
experience opportunities; appropriate
providing training, and creating
marketing and delivery mechanisms
opportunities through the value
which take into account young
chain; strategic philanthropy activities,
peoples specific circumstances;
including investing in youth skills
collaboration for impact and scale; a
development outside of the firm and
funding model that fits the purpose
focusing employee engagement on
and structure of the programme; and
building youth skills; and advocacy and
results measurement with a strong link
engagement, including engaging with
to jobs.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 05

1. WHY SHOULD BUSINESS INVEST

IN YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY?
YOUTH
EMPLOYMENT
AND THE SDGS
We are currently experiencing the largest youth generation in human history. This has The Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) set out global
the potential to catalyse increased global growth and prosperity. But right now, as many as
development priorities adopted
one in three of these young people are not in employment, education or training, and
by nearly 200 United Nations
many of those who are employed work in low-paid, insecure jobs. An estimated 500 million member states in September
young people around the world are unemployed, underemployed or working insecure jobs.5 2015. They cover both parts of
An additional 100 million are forecast to enter the job market every year for the next decade.6 the youth employment equation
described above.

Youth employment is therefore Goal 8 targets job

The costs to young people and to the
markets and societies they live in are
considerable. Poverty and financial
insecurity limit young peoples material
and psychological well-being, and the
roles they can play as consumers and
citizens. This increases the demand
for and cost of social services. It
also contributes to inequality and
creates social tension that can boil
over into conflict.7 Being unemployed
for significant periods when young
leaves scars that can persist well into
adulthood,8 often affecting a persons
outlook, career trajectory, and overall
potential for life.
Today, young people face not only a
an urgent priority for the global creation, aiming to
shortage of jobs but also a struggle
community, as reflected in the promote sustained,
to get those jobs that do exist. At the
Sustainable Development Goals inclusive and sustainable
same time, employers consistently
(SDGs) (see box). There are two economic growth, full and
report having a hard time filling
parts to the equation. productive employment and
vacancies due to a lack of the right
decent work for all.
candidates.9 Young people entering
The first is to create jobs. To do
the labour market for the first time Goal 4 targets
this on the massive scale required
tend to lack networks and experience, employability, aiming
will demand a collective effort to
and are perceived as high-risk hires. to ensure inclusive
strengthen the operating environment
Many also lack the hard and soft skills and equitable quality education
and facilitate greater innovation,
required.10 A significant cause of and promote lifelong learning
investment, and growth, and with
the skills gap is limited engagement opportunities for all. Sub-
it, accelerated rates of job creation.
between the education sector and goal 4.4 specifically aims to
Business has a central role to play.
employers: education and training are substantially increase the
The second is to ensure that young not keeping up with rapid changes in number of youth and adults who
people have what it takes to fill the world of work, and young people have relevant skills, including
those jobs. This is what we call leave education poorly prepared. technical and vocational skills,
employability. for employment, decent jobs
and entrepreneurship.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
The business case for investing in youth employability includes expanding the pool of
qualified talent. But companies also report that investing in youth employability can
deliver the following benefits:11
1. CONNECTING WITH CORE
BUSINESS PRIORITIES
Investing in youth builds the foundations for future
business growth and innovation. Businesses
operating in sectors that already face large
labour shortages, such as digital technology and
engineering, have especially strong incentives for
managing that risk by investing in specialised skills
training.
Employees recruited through youth training
schemes are often the most loyal with the highest
retention rates. In addition, there is evidence
linking a young workforce, digital literacy and
innovation. Young people bring new ideas. They
can also optimise new media and technology to
reach and influence their peers. Young employees
help companies connect with young consumers on
a level they relate to.
2. CONNECTING WITH
CANDIDATES 4.
Investing in young people is essential for
recruitment and retention in a competitive
labour market. Millennials want to work for
companies with social purpose; investing in youth
employability is a powerful way to demonstrate
companies are tackling an issue that resonates
with potential candidates.
3.
CONNECTING WITH
EMPLOYEES COMMUNITIES
Youth employability programmes offer avenues
for engaging current employees, for example as
skills-based volunteers. This has been shown to
increase work satisfaction, improve performance
and reduce turnover, generating recruitment and
retention cost savings.
P 06
CONNECTING WITH
CUSTOMERS
Investing in young people helps businesses reach
and generate loyalty among the consumers of the
future. It also helps cultivate more positive brand
association and corporate reputation among
existing consumers. Consumers today expect
companies to reflect their diversity, including age
diversity, in the people they hire.
5.
CONNECTING WITH
Investing in young people strengthens a companys
connections with local communities, bolstering
its social license to operate. Visibly engaging with
young people can also help humanise a company,
countering the anti-business sentiments that
prevail in some communities.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 07

YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT: THE BIGGER PICTURE 12

1.8 billion 3x 38%

THE CURRENT YOUTH YOUNG PEOPLE ARE GLOBALLY, 38% OF ALL
POPULATION THREE TIMES AS LIKELY WORKING YOUTH, 156
AS ADULTS TO BE MILLION YOUNG PEOPLE,
UNEMPLOYED ARE LIVING IN POVERTY.
IN DEVELOPING
13% YOUTH REPRESENT COUNTRIES, THE FIGURE
GLOBALLY, JUST OVER 15% OF THE WORLDS IS OVER 70%
13% OF 15-24 YEAR OLDS LABOUR FORCE BUT
ARE UNEMPLOYED ACCOUNT FOR 35% OF A BILLION MORE YOUNG
UNEMPLOYED PEOPLE PEOPLE WILL ENTER
GLOBALLY THE JOB MARKET IN THE
NEXT DECADE
50%+
IN GREECE, SPAIN,
AND SOUTH AFRICA, 85%
MORE THAN HALF OF NEARLY 85% OF THE
YOUNG PEOPLE ARE YOUNG WOMEN WORLDS YOUNG PEOPLE
UNEMPLOYED ARE MORE LIKELY LIVE IN LOWER-INCOME
THAN MALES TO BE COUNTRIES AND FRAGILE
UNEMPLOYED AND STATES
25%+ TO BE IN POOR-
QUALITY JOBS. IN 2016
YOUTH JOBLESS THE LABOUR FORCE
LEVELS OF 25% OR
MORE ARE COMMON
PARTICIPATION RATE
FOR YOUNG WOMEN 9 in 10
IN THE MIDDLE EAST, WAS ALMOST 17 THE PRIVATE SECTOR IS
NORTHERN AFRICA PERCENTAGE POINTS THE MAIN DRIVER OF JOB
AND SOME EUROPEAN LOWER THAN FOR CREATION, PROVIDING 9
COUNTRIES YOUNG MEN IN 10 JOBS
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 08

2. WHAT SKILLS DO YOUNG PEOPLE

NEED TO BE EMPLOYABLE?
Employers agree that they look for a combination of hard skills,
soft skills, and personal attributes, with the specifics depending
on the nature of the business and the role.

Hard skills tend to be job-specific honesty, integrity and perseverance in to refer to them as human advantage
and can typically be acquired in a this category. skills.14
formal learning environment; they
There is widespread consensus The downside is that companies
are usually easy to identify and
that soft skills are essential for are often less inclined to invest in
measure. Sometimes known as work
young people to find and keep good these skills as they stand to lose
skills, examples of hard skills include
jobs. LinkedIns most recent Global their investment should an employee
computer programming, typing,
Recruiting Trends study found that choose to change jobs. This is
vehicle repair or pattern cutting.
more employers are rolling out therefore an area where collaboration
Soft skills are harder to define. soft skills assessments to test (with governments, donors and/or
Variously known as people skills, non- job candidates on cognitive and other businesses) to share the costs
cognitive skills, or transferable skills, personality qualities including critical of providing these skills could be
soft skills are usually understood thinking, adaptability, learning agility particularly impactful (see Framework,
to refer to interpersonal, social and and communication.13 Pillar 3 on p25 for more detail).
communication skills, including skils
Soft skills are particularly valuable Young people also need a set of
such as teamwork and leadership.
as they are seen to be transferable life skills to succeed in work, and
Critical thinking, analytical ability,
and not tied to a particular job, and many youth skills development
decision-making and problem-solving
also less vulnerable than many hard programmes make provision for this.
skills are highly sought-after soft skills
skills to becoming obsolete due to Local circumstances influence which
for many jobs. Some also include
technological advances, leading some life skills need to be prioritised. These
personal attributes such as empathy,
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
could include financial literacy; longer
term career or life planning; and
negotiating social and cultural norms
and stereotypes, such as pressure
to enter into early marriage or leave
education for other reasons.
Whilst the importance of soft skills
is widely recognised, less is known
about how to signal or measure these
skills, and how they are acquired
and transferred. Research into
these questions is ongoing, with
mobile communications technology
offering some potentially exciting new
solutions to the challenge of soft skills
assessment and signalling.15
For their part, young people want
companies to be more transparent
about exactly what skills they are
looking for in entry-level recruits,
including which soft skills they regard
as essential for advertised positions.
In addition to skills, workplace
experience is an important factor
in employability. In a recent survey
of British employers, for example,
over 75% indicated that they expect
entry-level candidates to have some
work experience though less than
half provide opportunities for young
people to acquire such experience.16
Opportunities to acquire workplace
experience are especially important
for young people in rural or
agricultural communities where there
may be few role models from the
world of business and little exposure
to typical work environments or larger
market transactions.
P 09
EMPLOYABILITY FOR
THE JOBS OF THE FUTURE
Innovation is accelerating, and rapidly
changing the nature of work. No one can
predict with any confidence what the jobs
of the future will look like, or what skills
will be needed to do them. The World Bank
suggests that only 40% of the one billion
people forecast to enter the job market
in the next decade will take up jobs that
currently exist.17
The digital revolution is already transforming many
workplaces, with digital literacy and confidence and
more specialised skills like web development and
cyber security, along with adaptability, problem
solving, resilience and decision making skills becoming
increasingly in demand.
This rapid change is contributing to a growing
focus on the ability to learn new skills what some
term learnability. Many youth skills development
organisations urge recruiters to focus on young
peoples attributes and capacity, rather than purely on
their capability or pre-existing skills. A lot of research
currently being undertaken is aimed at improving
understanding of what constitutes learnability and
how it can be signaled, measured and valued.18
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY:
TRANSFORMING LEARNERS INTO EARNERS:
THE PEARSON AND MICROSOFT PARTNERSHIP
Billions of people do not have access to the
fundamental technology skills required to enter
the workforce creating a massive opportunity
divide between those who have means and
those in poor and marginalised communities.
Sadly this opportunity divide is often exacerbated
during times of conflict - such as is the case in
Syria, the worst humanitarian crisis since the
Second World War. There are more than 5
million registered Syrian refugees, half of whom
are school-aged children.
For nearly two decades, Pearson and Microsoft
have partnered together to provide technology
skills training and certification to learners around
the globe. In 2016, the companies announced
an expanded global partnership to empower
thousands of secondary, tertiary and continuing
education refugee students to learn, practice,
certify, and showcase their employable skills.
This project is just getting started and currently
in the piloting stage. As it progresses, we will be
measuring its outcomes via the credentialing
solutions outlined below.
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
For refugees who have had limited to no
engagement with computing, Pearsons IC3
program provides a foundation of digital literacy.
Building on that bedrock, students then gain the
skills demanded by employers, through Microsoft
Office Specialist (MOS) certification.
In addition, after being displaced by conflict,
many refugees want to start or continue a
small business or micro-enterprise, but lack the
required skills. To serve this demand, Pearson
introduced the Entrepreneurship and Small
Business (ESB) certification program.
For refugees seeking to create software
applications, coding and software development
skills are integrated as a fundamental component
for learners across elementary, secondary,
and tertiary education as part of the Microsoft
Technology Associate (MTA) program. And for
those aspiring to pursue a career in technology,
there are options to help them continue down
that path, via Microsoft Certified Professional
(MCP) certification.
As part of our monitoring and evaluation model,
Pearson has launched Acclaim, a credentialing
P 10
solution which shows promise in addressing
the specific needs of refugees and displaced
populations. Unlike traditional certificates, an
Acclaim credential provides a digital, portable
record of a learners skills that cannot be
destroyed. It reflects a third-party, independently
verified qualification that demonstrates job-
readiness. Acclaim also provides learners with
insight into the market value of their skills;
provides hiring organisations, customers and
partners with verified skills history on employees
and potential hires; and facilitates the tracking
of skills earned to help organisations determine
the effectiveness of badges issued. This service
is available today for all learners who earn one of
the above credentials.
These activities complement Pearsons other
work to help address the Syrian refugee crisis,
including our Every Child Learning partnership
with Save the Children, which seeks to leverage
mobile technology in combination with a
holistic school programme to improve learning
outcomes, retention rates and the overall school
environment for Syrian and Jordanian students.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 11

3. HOW CAN COMPANIES

TAKE ACTION?
While labour force
development is traditionally
the domain of the public
A. THROUGH THE CORE
BUSINESS
2. OFFER INTERNSHIPS,
APPRENTICESHIPS AND OTHER
WORKPLACE PROGRAMMES
sector, there are many ways 1. CREATE ENABLING HIRING Offer internships, apprenticeships,
POLICIES AND PRACTICES learnerships, and other opportunities for
that business can act to
Commit to hiring, training and mentoring young people to gain work experience. Bear in
support young people into mind that unpaid positions are likely to favour
young people.
decent work. Broadly, business the better off.
can take action through Review internal recruitment policies to
identify barriers preventing young people Provide access to your workplace through
their core business, strategic
from taking up jobs in your company. summer jobs programmes, school workplace
philanthropy and through placement programmes, job shadowing etc.
Remove requirements for standard formal
advocacy and engagement.19
qualifications not actually needed for a job.
Not every business will be able
Reach out to young people to understand
3. PROVIDE ON-GOING TRAINING
to do each of the things listed
what barriers they face in finding work. Ensure that in-house positions offer the right
here; this is intended as a list
training and mentoring to attract and retain
of possible actions to consider, Be more transparent about the job young workers, even where those workers may
depending on individual opportunities your company offers young be disadvantaged compared to older peers.
business needs, capacity and people, and about exactly what skills
(including soft skills) you are looking for. Make training continuous in your business;
circumstances:
recognise that 60% of human capital is
Participate in careers fairs and employment acquired on the job.
information services.
4. CREATE OPPORTUNITIES
THROUGH THE VALUE CHAIN
Support other job creators, such as fast-
growing businesses in your value chain or local
entrepreneurs, through training, coaching,
access to finance and/or market linkages.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
B. THROUGH
STRATEGIC
PHILANTHROPHY
5. INVEST IN YOUTH SKILLS
DEVELOPMENT
Partner with other businesses, specialist
providers, civil society groups, government
agencies and/or donors skills to create or
support wider youth skills development
programmes. Target skills development
relevant to the long-term growth of the
industry or sector.
Ensure adequate internal capacity exists to
lead and manage youth skills programmes,
especially multi-stakeholder initiatives;
and that different business units are
aligned internally to enable common
measurement, reporting and data sharing.
6. FOCUS EMPLOYEE
ENGAGEMENT ON BUILDING
YOUTH SKILLS
Focus employee engagement on supporting
skills-based volunteering and mentoring
that helps build the hard and soft skills of
young people.
P 12
C. THROUGH Advocate for increased investment in
ADVOCACY high-quality and relevant secondary
AND ENGAGEMENT education and technical and
vocational education and training
7. ENGAGE WITH (TVET) at national and local level.
GOVERNMENT TO
STRENGTHEN THE Support business associations in your
EDUCATION SYSTEM sector and ensure their advocacy
agendas include working for long-
Work closely with education and
term, systemic and sustainable
vocational training institutions (both
improvements in education and
public and private) to shape curricula
training policy.
that prepare students to get good jobs
for example, by joining boards and
participating in business needs surveys.
Where possible, engage directly with
8. SHARE GOOD PRACTICE
and support TVET trainers. Share success stories and lessons
learnt in your youth employability
Support teachers in preparing their programmes; contribute to the body of
students for the world of work. evidence on what works.
Engage with government to identify Share the cost and benefits of your
future demand and encourage them to programmes to make it even easier for
tailor education and training priorities others to decide to take action.
accordingly.
Engage with government to ensure that
young people receiving training attain a
recognised qualification.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY:
PATHWAYS TO PROGRESS
Pathways to Progress is Citi and the Citi
Foundations response to the persistent
issue of global youth unemployment.
Led by the philanthropic efforts of the
Citi Foundation, Pathways to Progress
supports programs that are aimed
at reducing youth unemployment by
helping young people, ages 16-24,
prepare for todays competitive
job market.
In February 2017, the Citi Foundation
announced a global expansion of the initiative
with a $100 million, three-year commitment
to prepare 500,000 young people for todays
competitive job market. A key component
of Pathways to Progress is the programs
that the Citi Foundation invests in that are
helping connect young people to employment
opportunities. For example, Summer Jobs
Connect (SJC), co-created by the Citi Foundation
and the Cities for Financial Empowerment
Fund (CFE), gives young people the first-
job experience while delivering targeted
financial education curriculum to promote the
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
Citi and Citi Foundations Pathways to Progress initiative
provides a good illustration of the wide range of activities
companies can engage in to help young people hone their
employability skills
development of positive financial behaviors.
Launched in 2014, SJC builds on the success of
existing municipal Summer Youth Employment
Programs (SYEPs) and partners with city leaders
to integrate financial education with career
skills training.
While summer jobs give young people work
experience and regular (albeit short-term)
paychecks, research shows that young people
are also ill-prepared to manage their new
financial situations. SJC leverages participants
first-job experience to embed targeted
financial education into the curriculum to
develop a lasting financial empowerment
infrastructure.
Since the launch of SJC in 2014, the Citi
Foundation has invested over $13 million
in this initiative, which has provided nearly
6,200 low-income youth with summer work
experience and access to financial education.
Another important programmatic element
of Pathways to Progress is entrepreneurship
training that fosters the entrepreneurial
spirit of youth and enables them to create
P 13
job opportunities for themselves. For
instance, in 2015 Citi partnered with Youth
Business International (YBI) to launch Youth
Business Europe, which is providing aspiring
youth entrepreneurs across Europe with
entrepreneurship training, access to capital,
mentoring and other business development
services. To date this program has trained
over 5,000 young people and helped them
start or develop 1,760 businesses.
Beyond Citi Foundations philanthropic
efforts, Citi employees play a critical role in
the implementation of Pathways to Progress.
Citi will mobilise 10,000 employee volunteers
to offer their time and expertise as mentors,
coaches and role models to young people
to help support their career progress and
aspirations.
Additionally, Citi businesses and functions will
be working in partnership with community
and civic leaders to facilitate the sharing of
best practices and supporting on-site learning
opportunities for young people.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
A FRAMEWORK FOR CREATING YOUTH
SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES
As we have seen, companies have a range
of options for action to enhance youth
employability. They choose among them based
on needs ranging from hiring and workforce
development to corporate reputation and
relationship-building.
Companies may also combine
actions as part of an overall strategy
for enhancing youth employability
for example, supporting science,
technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) programmes for university
students, recruiting junior associates
from those programmes and more
broadly, and at the same time
participating in local and national
dialogues on education and training
policy. In this way, they aim to create
both business benefit and social
impact with an eye to long-term,
systemic change.
As part of their approach, some
companies are increasingly interested
in skills training programmes
that reach beyond their current
workforces yet many consider
developing such programmes outside
their comfort zones.
This section of the guide provides a
framework that human resources,
corporate sustainability, and
community investment professionals
can use to strengthen existing youth
skills development programmes
and design new ones on their
own or with partners in civil society,
government, corporate peers and/or
the donor community.
Because employability is context-
specific, depending on industry,
culture, and other factors, the
framework provides an approach for
assessing demand and supply for
P 14
skilled young people and designing
a programme to bridge the gaps.
There is no one-size-fits-all solution.
There are, however, many inspiring
examples, which we feature here
to illustrate different aspects of the
approach. Resources for further
information are included at the end.
Finally, remember that employability
is only one side of the coin when it
comes to youth employment. The
other is availability of suitable jobs.
Youth skills development programmes
will only have an impact where jobs
are available for young people to fill.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 15

A FRAMEWORK FOR DEVELOPING

YOUTH SKILLS DEVELOPMENT

STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3 ACHIEVE

IDENTIFY
THE DEMAND
UNDERSTAND
SUPPLY SIDE GAPS
DESIGN AND
IMPLEMENT BUSINESS
FOR LABOUR A SUCCESSFUL
PROGRAMME
TARGETS
PILLAR 1: THE RIGHT CONTENT

PILLAR 2: APPROPRIATE
MARKETING AND DELIVERY
MECHANISMS

PILLAR 3: COLLABORATION FOR

IMPACT AND SCALE

PILLAR 4: A FUNDING MODEL

THAT FITS

PILLAR 5: RESULTS MEASUREMENT

ROOTED IN EMPLOYMENT
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 16

STEP 1:
IDENTIFY THE DEMAND FOR LABOUR

The purpose of enhancing
employability is ultimately
to increase employment.
That means starting with
the demand for labour and
designing a programme with
the explicit aim of filling it,
measuring success by the
number of young people who
find jobs after participating.
Too many youth employability
programmes today focus on
the supply side, and measure
their success by the number of
young people they have trained.
It will not be possible to address
the demand for labour across all
industries or geographies. To bound
the exercise, start by understanding
the business case for your company
to engage in the programme.
IS THE COMPANY HOPING TO IS THE COMPANY LOOKING What do entry-level opportunities
MEET ITS OWN HIRING NEEDS? INSTEAD TO STRENGTHEN THE look like, and how are they likely to
MARKETS AND SOCIETIES IN evolve?
IF SO, START WITH ASSESSING
WHICH IT OPERATES, IN ORDER
YOUR INTERNAL DEMAND FOR What skills do candidates need to
TO STRENGTHEN CORPORATE
SKILLED YOUNG PEOPLE. FOR
REPUTATION OR BUILD
have hard skills, soft skills and
EXAMPLE: attributes?
POSITIVE RELATIONSHIPS WITH
KEY STAKEHOLDER GROUPS? What kind of work experience is
What are your current and future required?
IF SO, ASSESS DEMAND IN
labour needs? Which parts of your
INDUSTRIES THAT MATTER TO
business are most likely to grow?
THOSE STAKEHOLDER GROUPS.
Where is the greatest risk of a skills
FOR EXAMPLE:
shortage?
What kinds of opportunities are
Which stakeholder groups, in what
or will be available to entry-level
places, matter the most?
candidates?
What industries do they care
Which ones are young people
about? These might be industries
especially well-suited for?
along your value chain, for
If you find little to no
What skills do candidates need to example, or priority sectors
unmet demand for young
have hard skills, soft skills and identified in national development
workers, reassess the
attributes? plans.
need for a youth skills
What kind of work experience is Of the industries key stakeholders development programme.
required? care about, which are most likely to
absorb entry-level workers?
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 17

CASE STUDY:
BARCLAYS/PER SCHOLAS Barclays partnership with specialist skills provider Per Scholas aims to
PARTNERSHIP meet a clearly identified recruitment demand for technology skills in the
United States.

Barclays is a transatlantic bank with a history

of supporting young people to gain skills for
employability. In 2016 Barclays launched
its Shared Growth Ambition, which commits
to further upskilling millions of people and
driving job creation through their support for
entrepreneurs.
Barclays has been partnering since 2012
with Per Scholas, a non-profit organisation
based in New York, with a view to offering a
technology career path to individuals from
overlooked communities. The partnership
programme provides free tuition in technology
skills training to people living at or below 200%
of the federal poverty level, who are un- and
underemployed. With Barclays support, Per
Scholas launched a new facility in Brooklyn,
New York to help train students in areas of
high demand in the technology sector.
STARTING WITH THE DEMAND SIDE
A recent study20 found a dangerous shortage
of skilled cybersecurity professionals in the
United States, which negatively impacts
organisations and their customers, leading
to more frequent and costly data breaches.
Data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics21
indicates that demand for cybersecurity jobs is
expected to grow by 53% during 2018 alone.
Per Scholas course provides students with
the intensive hands-on training, workplace
exposure, career counselling and professional
development needed to successfully pursue
opportunities in this critical field.
Per Scholas has trained over 6,500 individuals
since 1995. 85% of students graduate, and 80%
of graduates land jobs.
For Barclays, creating access to employment
is good for business and good for society.
By helping to address unemployment, the
company sees tangible benefits to individuals
social and economic prospects, and how it
creates broader opportunities for growth and
increased resilience. This, in turn, is helping to
build long-term demand for and access to the
companys business services.
In addition, by recruiting directly from the
program, Barclays is benefiting from new talent
trained in the vital skills the business needs,
whilst recruits show high levels of loyalty to the
business. To date, Barclays has hired 12 Per
Scholas graduates for full-time careers and 6
interns from the cybersecurity course within its
Operations & Technology function.
Barclays has also witnessed a substantial
return on investment including increased
employee engagement in training, hiring and
retention practices, and access to a reliable
and reputable source for highly skilled talent.
Partnering with Per Scholas has allowed the
bank to establish a critical presence in the
greater workforce community of New York.

A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 18

75% of Per Scholas course work

is hands on. The cybersecurity
curriculum is developed in
partnership with Barclays to
ensure that students are prepared
with in-demand skills for the
technology industry.

A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
STEP 2:
UNDERSTAND SUPPLY SIDE GAPS
The next step is to determine what is keeping young people from fulfilling the demand you have identified.
FIRST, IDENTIFY
THE TARGET POPULATION
Establish whether you are interested in
young people in general or a particular
group of young people. Revisit the
business case for your company to
engage. Cross-cutting business objectives,
particular brand strategies, and/or
stakeholder needs the company aims to
address may all provide reasons to focus
on specific segments, such as young
women or low-income youth.
Identifying a clear target population will help
bound the market research you need to do in
order to design a programme those young people
will respond to. For example, if you find that
disadvantages linked to poverty are keeping young
people out of work, it will be essential to minimise
the costs of participating in your programme
including travel costs and the opportunity cost of
time away from any income-generating pursuits. If
you find that social norms and gender stereotypes
are discouraging young women from joining
existing education and training programmes, you
might consider offering single-sex workshops.
NEXT, CONDUCT
MARKET RESEARCH
ACCESS TO SUPPORT
To understand your target population,
their aspirations, needs, and the context
in which they live, you might cover
questions such as:
EXPERIENCE IN THE JOB MARKET
How often are young people from the target
population currently being hired for the types of
jobs identified in Step 1, and what distinguishes a
successful candidate from an unsuccessful one?
How often are young people from the target
population applying for the types of jobs
identified in Step 1?
PERSONAL ASPIRATIONS AND ASSETS
What drives young people to apply for available
jobs, or prevents them from doing so?
For example, do those young people have
information about available opportunities?
Are available opportunities attractive to them?
Why or why not? What are young people from
the target population looking for in their careers?
P 19
Do they have the necessary skills and/or work
experience? Why or why not?
Do they participate in any existing education
and training programmes, and how do those
programmes rank in terms of accessibility,
quality, and cost?
Are poverty, social and cultural norms, racial,
class, or gender stereotypes, or other factors
keeping kids out of education and training or
affecting their ability to learn and perform?
Are curricula geared toward labour market needs?
What barriers do young people face in accessing
available work, such as lack of information about
where the jobs are, money for transport, etc.?
Who are the influential people in young peoples
lives, and to what extent do they encourage and
support education and training? These might
include parents, community leaders, and other
role models.
What support does the government provide
for these young people to enhance their
employability?
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 20

CITI FOUNDATIONS There is a mismatch between the Youth have the entrepreneurial
LISTENING TO GLOBAL YOUTH jobs youth have and the jobs they spirit but are not starting
YOUNG PEOPLE SURVEY 2017 want. Globally, 55% of young people businesses. Nearly 70% of those
with jobs are working in industries surveyed aspire to start businesses,
Research about young peoples in which they dont aspire to work. but only 6% have done so.
In 2017, Citi Foundation
needs can be conducted via Young people crave on-the-job
commissioned a survey with Ipsos to Three out of four young people
surveys, focus groups, and one- experience and professional and
gauge the economic prospects and are willing to work long hours and
on-one interviews with young social connections to help them
pursuits of 7,000 young people in take risks to achieve their career
people themselves, hiring find new opportunities.
45 cities in 32 countries around the aspirations.
managers in your company or world. Some key messages emerged: 78% of young people believe that
others, if relevant, and local Full results can be found here:
internships and apprenticeships are
stakeholder organisations and Despite uncertainty and change
critical for success; however, 60% http://bit.ly/2l5BQYb
experts. You may choose to across the globe, 70% of young
say there arent enough of these
do the research in-house, or people are optimistic about their
opportunities.
work through local partners career prospects. Optimism is even
with on-the-ground access and higher in cities in developing markets.
know-how. Make sure to spend
sufficient time engaging with
IN RESPONSE TO THE More professional connections If I knew where to learn about
young people directly to fully QUESTION WHAT WOULD job opportunities
41%
understand their aspirations MAKE IT EASIER TO FIND A 33%
JOB?
42%

and incentives and the 39%

35%

constraints that they face. respondents to the 2017 Citi Youth More social connections
31%

This research will not only be Survey answered as follows: 35% More jobs in my city
useful in assessing supply side 36% 31%
35%

gaps, but will also help ensure On-the-job experience

32%

The right education

29%

that young peoples views and

circumstances are fully taken 48% TOTAL 33% More jobs in my occupation
into account in programme
47% DEVELOPED MARKETS 34% 27%
50% DEVELOPING MARKETS 32%

design and delivery. 30%

24%
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 21

STEP 3:
DESIGN AND IMPLEMENT
A SUCCESSFUL PROGRAMME
Now you have the information you need to design a programme that bridges supply and demand
and supports young people into work.
The successful programmes we reviewed for this guide are built upon five pillars:

PILLAR 1 PILLAR 2: PILLAR 3: PILLAR 4: PILLAR 5:

THE RIGHT APPROPRIATE COLLABORATION A FUNDING RESULTS
CONTENT MARKETING FOR IMPACT AND MODEL THAT MEASUREMENT
AND DELIVERY SCALE FITS ROOTED IN
MECHANISMS EMPLOYMENT

The following pages explain why these five pillars are important. We do not provide comprehensive,
step-by-step instructions for putting them in place but rather offer a collection of practical tips and
examples gathered through the research and engagement process.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 22

PILLAR 1:
THE RIGHT CONTENT

To support young people into work, programmes must target the reasons that Completing tasks and projects have
young people arent applying or being hired for available jobs already. The right the added benefit of strengthening
content might cover a mix of skills, depending on job requirements and young self-belief. It is very powerful when
young people recognise that they
peoples existing capabilities, in different formats from classroom training
have achieved something and
to experiential learning, from team projects to internships or apprenticeships observe their own progression.
in real workplaces. The right content might also include a focus on critical
intangibles like confidence and self-belief, and/or life skills like developing External recognition can also
strengthen self-belief for
a personal vision and long-term plan. The key is to be learner-centric,
example, a celebration event on
responding to young peoples aspirations and needs and the contexts they live
course completion hosted by the
in as explored in your market research. CEO of the company sponsoring or
hosting the training.

In certain industries, it may be

PRACTICAL TIPS
Engage closely in the training
content development process if
you choose to use an external
provider, involving other companies
as appropriate. Business input is
essential to ensure that the skills
being taught are relevant, up-to-
date and sought after, whether by
your own company or others with
demand for young workers.
Soft skills are hard to teach in
a classroom setting. Consider
whether and how to offer
workplace experience, or include
tasks and projects in classroom-
based training. A number of
programmes have successfully used
sports22 and creative activities23
to teach soft skills that are
transferable into a work context.
necessary to focus on mindset
change. For example, it is common
among girls to think that the
technology industry is not for them
or is out of reach. Exposure can
be a powerful intervention, for
example through office visits or
talks by role models.
Prioritise work readiness with a
focus on instilling the necessary
disciplines and behaviours for the
workplace, especially for first-time
work seekers.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
If targeting vulnerable populations,
ensure that the programme allows
sufficient time and stability for
participants to build self-belief as
well as skills.
Consider the value of having
the training course certified by
government or industry bodies.
Bear in mind that certification can
be time-consuming and expensive;
if it would help the young people
participating in your programme,
it may be more cost-effective
to partner with institutions that
already have or can be supported
to acquire certification. In practice,
many employers (or the third-
party recruiters acting on their
behalf) will conduct their own skills
assessment prior to candidate
selection anyway, rendering
external certification less critical.
This will vary across countries and
sectors, so invest the time up-front
to assess whether certification is
worth pursuing.
It is rarely possible to replicate a
programme from one setting to
another without some adaptation
to context. Do desk research
and engage with stakeholders to
understand local requirements and
adapt your content accordingly,
including ensuring that specific
references and examples are
relevant and meaningful. Pilot the
programme and allow for further
adaptation based on the results.
APPRENTICESHIPS
Apprenticeships offer a good way to
acquire both the hard skills needed
to do certain jobs as well as soft skills
and workplace experience, and to
earn while you learn. Companies
offering apprenticeships benefit
from the low-cost help, and evidence
suggests that young people recruited
via apprenticeship schemes are
more loyal, perform better and are
less likely to leave their jobs.
Many governments offer incentives
to encourage employers to offer
apprenticeships, such as the UKs
apprenticeship levy. Apprenticeship
is also a long-established and
widespread practice in many
developing countries, especially in
Africa. For example, in Ghana, as
much as 80% of skill development
is done through the apprenticeship
system.
P 23
However, apprenticeship is not
a silver bullet. Young people
with poor school achievement
or other disadvantages may not
qualify, just as they would not
qualify for full-fledged jobs. Where
apprenticeships are undertaken
in the informal sector, there is a
recognition problem: young people
cannot signal what skills they
have acquired and this limits their
access to new jobs, especially in
the formal sector. In unregulated
environments, apprentices can
be vulnerable to exploitation,
and it can be hard to ensure that
training meets standards of quality.
Finally, where apprenticeships
are subsidised by governments
or donors, they can be difficult to
sustain financially over time.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY
BRAC SKILLS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME:
SKILLS TRAINING FOR ADVANCING RESOURCES (STAR), BANGLADESH
Bangladesh has a young, growing workforce,
with 2.2 million people entering the labour
market each year. These young people
could be a potent economic force. However,
technical and vocational education and training
(TVET) institutions only have the capacity to
train about 1.3 million people per year, leaving
nearly one million without critical skills. In
addition, the informal sector currently employs
more than 86% of the workforce, and many
young people in the informal sector are under-
employed.
In this context, BRACs STAR project works with
more than 10,400 small business owners and
master craftspeople who take on young people
as apprentices, training them in the skills and
providing the experience they need to more
fully participate in the informal sector.
BRAC worked with business owners to identify
occupations that were in high demand and
specific skills that were in short supply, and to
create a curriculum in response.
The project places apprentices in pairs under
a master craftsperson, usually an experienced
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
P 24
BRAC works with 10,400 SMEs in Bangladesh, using an apprenticeship model to
provide skills training and workplace experience to disadvantaged and excluded
youth, and achieving a remarkable 95% job placement rate.
The STAR project has trained 20,886 young
people across seven regions of Bangladesh,
with a 95% job placement rate for graduates
and a six-fold increase in their average
incomes. The project has been inclusive: 57%
of graduates have been female and 10%
shop-owner or worker within a particular trade.
have been people with disabilities. Earnings
The apprentices receive hands-on training
increased by 1,150 BDT (12) per month for
five days a week for a period of six months,
girls and 889 BDT (9) for boys. Increased
leading to a certified qualification under the
income has led to greater household welfare,
National Training and Vocational Qualifications
as measured by increased expenditure on
Framework (NTVQF).
food, durable asset holdings and savings.
In addition to this workplace-based training, Early marriage decreased by 62% among
apprentices receive classroom-based training participants. BRAC also found that the project
once a week on various issues, including has had a significant positive effect on the
financial literacy, market assessment and English empowerment of young people.
language skills. Once all training is completed,
the project links participants with potential
employers. For those keen on self-employment,
BRAC offers mentoring and technical assistance.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 25

PILLAR 2: APPROPRIATE MARKETING

AND DELIVERY MECHANISMS

Once you have designed the content and overall experience might prefer one-to-one sessions or covering transport costs. If
your target population needs to qualify for available work rather than having to speak up in a targeting young women, affordable
workshop setting. Assess the cost or free childcare during training
opportunities, you need to market and deliver the programme
implications and decide whether sessions or secure transport could
in ways that appeal and are accessible to them. Your company
you have the necessary resources, facilitate their participation.
might do this legwork itself, or team up with partners such or whether another party might
as existing education and training providers, both public and Think about the extent to which
be better positioned to meet the
private, civil society groups, or even other companies along technology could help deliver your
needs of this target group.
content cost-effectively, taking into
your value chain.
If targeting a broader group of account the target populations
young people, such as all high access to devices and the Internet.
school graduates in country In some contexts, a blended
PRACTICAL TIPS networks, such as schools, youth
organisations, and parents or x, ensure that the training approach can be useful: a mix of
guardians, as the barrier to entry is programme is accessible to all and classroom and online modules,
Involve young people in
often their influencers rather than not designed in a way that creates and real-life and virtual workplace
programme delivery, for example
their own attitudes and perceptions. barriers to particular groups. Keep experiences including interviews
through engaging them as
track of the user uptake and adjust and team exercises.
peer recruiters or enlisting past The choice of delivery partner your marketing and delivery if
participants as ambassadors. is crucial if targeting the most Engaging employees as skills-based
anomalies appear.
vulnerable, at-risk or excluded volunteers to deliver content or act
Make sure your marketing portrays
young people. Choose a specialised Consider how to reduce barriers as mentors may create additional
young people the way they see
local delivery partner that has to participation. For example, business value and social impact.
themselves and want others to
specific expertise in working with many young people cannot afford Young people benefit from exposure
see them. Young people may not
those groups. a significant investment of time to real role models and employee
appreciate being called the most
or money to participate in skills volunteers demonstrate greater job
marginalised, for example. If targeting young people from development programmes, so satisfaction, better performance,
It may be useful to engage disadvantaged backgrounds, you you could consider providing a and reduced turnover.
with young peoples support may need to adapt how the training living allowance during training,
is delivered; for example, they
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 26

CASE STUDY
MARKS & SPENCER AND THE PRINCES TRUST

The Princes Trust and Marks & Spencer (M&S)
have been working together to tackle youth
unemployment for over 10 years. The Princes
Trust first teamed up with M&S as a partner
for the retailers Marks & Start work placement
programme. Marks & Start launched in 2004
to help groups of people who sometimes
face barriers to employment young people,
single parents, those at risk of homelessness
and people with disabilities. The programme
offers structured work experience and an
accreditation. To date M&S has offered over
16,000 Marks & Start placements.
Five years ago, The Princes Trust and Marks
& Spencer launched Make Your Mark, a
tailored programme specifically designed for
18 25 year olds who are not in employment,
education or training. It helps develop the skills
and confidence young people need to find
work with hands-on experience of an M&S job,
training in employability skills and the support
of a coach and buddy.
Conscious of their responsibility to help tackle
youth unemployment, Marks & Spencer
identified particular periods of the year where
Marks & Spencers partnership with The Princes Trust addresses a core business
need increased demand for labour during peak retail periods while creating
opportunities for vulnerable young people to hone their employability skills in a
highly supportive environment.
introduction to retail. In week 2, they learn
customer service skills. Weeks 3 and 4 are
spent doing the work placement, typically
working on the shop floor helping to develop
key employability skills. A celebration event
is organised at the end of the programme
a colleague increase was required, for example and the young people have a chat about
progression and next steps on the final day.
at Christmas. This would give the young
people on the programme valuable hands-on Last year M&S and The Princes Trust offered
experience and offer them the opportunity to 1,500 placements to young people and over
take a temporary contract which could lead 90% of the young people who completed
to a permanent job. Make Your Mark was the programme went into a temporary or
piloted in 13 locations across the UK, and soon permanent contract with Marks & Spencer.
expanded to 90 programmes each year. For many of these young people, the Make
Ahead of the programme, a taster day is Your Mark programme helps them rebuild
organised so the young people can get a feel their confidence, gain invaluable retail specific
knowledge as well as wider employability skills.
of what they will be doing on the four week
course. Week 1 gives the young people an

A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 27

PILLAR 3:
COLLABORATION FOR IMPACT AND SCALE

Collaboration enables companies and their partners to share Assess each partners relative Partnering with small and medium
knowledge and information, pool scarce or diverse assets and strengths and understand enterprises can unlock significant
resources, catalyse innovation, and capitalise on one anothers how their assets, knowledge opportunities for on-the-job
core competencies. While it does come with some transaction and capabilities could be best training and work placements,
costs of its own, collaboration can thus help to design and utilised; allocate programme roles especially in developing countries
accordingly. where the informal sector drives
implement a programme more efficiently, with greater impact,
job creation.
and/or at larger scale than one company could do alone. As a Develop solid partnership
result, many of the most successful youth skills development operating and governance systems Work with teachers, who have
programmes are structured as multi-stakeholder partnerships to help drive progress and manage unparalleled access to and
issues as they arise. influence over young people, to
in which companies work with specialised training providers,
help them better prepare students
civil society groups, donors and government agencies. Be prepared to not only invest
for the world of work; for example,
financially in the partnership
making available volunteers to
Collaboration is especially important PRACTICAL TIPS but also make available the time
needed for deep and strategic
provide teachers with business
in the context of a systemic challenge training and coaching.
like enhancing youth employability, collaboration.
Start by mapping the ecosystem
which is rooted in information If you have had success with a
of stakeholders involved in youth Expect the unexpected. Even
asymmetries, resource and capacity company-run programme to boost
employability in the industry the best laid plans are usually no
gaps, and siloed ways of working youth employability, consider
sectors and with the target match for reality. Your business
among the many players in the partnering with one of the large,
populations you have chosen to needs or those of other employers
education system and the labour long-established global youth
focus on even if prospective may change. You may discover
market. Effective collaboration organisations with extensive
partners have already approached you didnt gather all the relevant
among these players can help to international networks to expand
you. A thorough search process facts during Steps 1 or 2, or that
address some of these root causes, its reach and impact.
will enable you to identify the right circumstances were not as they
strengthening the system for the partner(s) for the job. appeared. If you expect challenges,
future as well as serving specific
they do not need to turn into crises.
young people in the present.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY E4D/SOGA
EMPLOYMENT AND SKILLS FOR EASTERN AFRICA
Major oil and gas discoveries in East Africa have
established the region as a new frontier for
international oil companies (IOCs). The revenues,
employment and inward investment that the
sector could generate have the potential to
have a profound impact on development in the
four countries covered by this project: Kenya,
Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda.
It is vital that these new sectors create
productive jobs within the local economies, to
ensure that the countries natural resources
become a source of sustainable economic
growth and broad-based, inclusive development.
The oil and gas sector itself creates relatively
little direct employment, but for each job within
the sector, there can be up to four indirect and
10 induced jobs created within the supply chain
and supporting industries. Many of these jobs,
however, will require technical skills and training
that are currently in short supply within the
workforce. This project supports the technical
and vocational educational and training (TVET)
that will impart broader, more transferable
technical skills to local people. Rather than focus
only on skills development, E4D/SOGA also aims
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
P 28
The E4D/SOGA - Employment and Skills for Eastern Africa initiative is a good
example of a multi-stakeholder initiative launched in response to a specific
anticipated demand for labour. Although donor-driven, business is a key partner.
countries, meaning that government had to have
to stimulate local demand by facilitating the
a degree of ownership and oversight. At the
inclusion of local businesses into supply chains.
PARTNERS AND same time, it was important that the IOCs and
THEIR ROLES other private sector players gave a demand-side
perspective, as E4D/SOGA aspires to be a network
The E4D/SOGA project was created by Germanys
for the stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in
Ministry of Economic Cooperation and
the region, and not just a funding platform.
Development (BMZ) and the UKs Department
for International Development (DFID) and is Several IOCs have partnered with specific
funded by BMZ, DFID, the Norwegian Agency for initiatives. In Kenyas Turkana county, Tullow Oil
Development Cooperation (Norad) and Shell. is working with the Kenya Federation of Master
Builders under E4D/SOGA to support small and
GIZ, the German international development
medium-sized enterprises in the construction
agency is the implementing partner, working
value chain. In Mozambique, E4D/SOGA has
with local governments, IOCs and private
created a private sector-led roundtable to discuss
companies with expertise in skills training and
the skills needed for the gas value chain. ENI,
technical education.
Royal Dutch Shell and Anadarko Petroleum
have committed to work on skills development
From the outset, the programme recognised
in Mozambique, while Tullow Oil and Total are
the need to integrate the TVET initiatives into the
working on SME development in Uganda.
existing educational frameworks in the respective
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
PILLAR 4:
A FUNDING MODEL THAT FITS
The way a programme is funded strongly influences the PRACTICAL TIPS
way it is structured, operated, and governed, and ultimately
what it achieves. It is important to choose a funding model Before settling on a funding
that fits with the business case. If you aim to enhance youth model, find out what government
employability mainly to meet your companys own hiring needs, incentives are available in your
country or region of operation.
it probably makes sense to fund the programme entirely or
These could include youth
mostly yourself, in order to maintain the level of control you wage subsidies, tax breaks for
need over the outcomes. On the other hand, if you aim to training or employing young
strengthen the markets and societies in which your company people, and financial support for
operates, to strengthen corporate reputation or build positive apprenticeships and learnerships.
relationships with key stakeholder groups, there is likely a good Incentives may be offered at
case for sharing the costs with other companies, donors the national, regional or even
local level. Sometimes they are
and/or governments.
available for particular sectors
or occupations, or for particular
groups of young people.
Where government incentives
or donor funding are available,
consider whether and how to tailor
your programme to meet eligibility
criteria. Remember the business
case for your company and the
demand your programme aims to
fill. It is possible to adapt too much
in order to secure external funding,
and end up with a programme
P 29
that does not meet your business
objectives.
Donors are usually required to
demonstrate accountability for the
use of public and/or tax-exempt
philanthropic funds. Be prepared to
meet a high bar for measuring the
social impact of your programme.
Donors may also have other
conditions to consider, such as
meeting pre-agreed milestones prior
to disbursing tranches of funds.
Sector-wide co-funding can help
overcome the free rider problem,
where one company invests in
training young people only to lose
them to a competitor, which then
benefits from the first companys
investment. When several
companies in a sector join forces to
invest in youth skills development,
they all benefit from an entry-level
talent pool with a higher average
level of skills. Business associations
may be able to facilitate this kind of
collaboration.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY
HARAMBEE YOUTH EMPLOYMENT ACCELERATOR
South Africa has one of the highest structural
youth unemployment rates in the world. Yet,
on the demand side, hundreds of thousands
of vacancies and work opportunities exist
and go unfilled across the private and public
sector each year. Economic activity in key
growth sectors is hampered by the difficulty,
risks and costs associated with hiring young
South Africans searching for their first job.
But South Africans from the most marginalised
backgrounds rarely even get the chance to come
into contact with potential employers. They
stand outside the networks of opportunity that
others with similar capabilities rely on to secure
their first formal sector job, the necessary first
step toward a lifetime of upward mobility.
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
(Harambee) was established in 2011 to
address this demand-supply mismatch
by understanding what entry-level jobs
exist in the economy and understanding
what behaviours and skills are needed to
ready young people to succeed in those
opportunities. Harambee was initiated and
incubated by private sector businesses
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
P 30
Harambee is a private sector-originated and -driven initiative which uses a 3-way
financing model to fund its work supporting disadvantaged young South Africans
at risk of unemployment into decent work.
Yellowwoods and its investee businesses level positions. (Harambee has secured the
Hollard Insurance, Nandos and others. participation of over 350 employers in its
programme). Social investors have also partnered
In its first five years of operation, Harambee
with Harambee, attracted by the demand-led
has demonstrated proof of concept by placing
approach, the public-private partnership model
36,000 young people who would otherwise
secured by Harambee, the scalability of the
not have accessed the labour market into
model, the utilisation of matching for improved
sustained formal sector employment with over
likelihood of success and the behavioural focus in
350 employers in 10 sectors of the economy.
the work-readiness programmes.
In addition, nearly 300,000 work-seekers were
Government has funded a significant share
supported to improve their employability in order
of operational delivery and are looking to
to navigate their way from education to work.
integrate Harambee with jobs related initiatives
across the economy (most notably with The
A FUNDING MODEL THAT FITS
Jobs Fund through National Treasury but also
Harambee has financed its large-scale across other spheres of government including
solutions through a triple-financing model that the Department of Labour, Department of
draws on social investment, employer fees and Trade and Industry, the Industrial Development
government grants. Corporation, the Department of Social
Employers contribute fees to cover the costs Development, and the major metropolitan
of finding and readying candidates for entry municipalities.)
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
PILLAR 5: RESULTS MEASUREMENT
ROOTED IN EMPLOYMENT
A robust approach to results measurement is fundamental To measure change, it is necessary
to the success of any programme. Too often, youth skills to have a before picture or
baseline assessment to compare
development programmes focus only on the supply side,
to your after picture. Consider
measuring the number of young people reached with training.
whether you can combine such
As the ultimate goal is to get young people into jobs, it is a baseline assessment with the
essential to include targets and performance indicators on the
market research you do in Step 2
number of young people in employment upon completion of
to understand the young people
the programme. Better data on results of interventions and you are targeting, their needs,
the return on investment will also help strengthen the business aspirations, and circumstances.
case for more companies to take action and invest in youth
Engage young people during this
skills development.
stage of the process as well, for
example through mobilising them
PRACTICAL TIPS as data collectors.
Results can be measured on the
Define at the outset what success
basis of a conventional Theory of
will look like. For example, how
Change model, or using a more
many young people are working
adaptive and less linear approach.
within how many months of
completing your programme? What Choose key performance indicators
kind of work will qualify? Part-time (KPIs) to measure progress each
or full-time, contract or permanent, step of the way. KPIs should include
within any particular wage range? If the number of young people in
the goal is for youth to find decent employment after a specified
work,24 how is this defined? period following completion of
the programme. Depending on
programme design, employment
P 31
could refer to formal employment,
entrepreneurship, or working in
better jobs than they had before
participating in the programme.
KPIs should also include measures
of business value created that
link back to the business case for
investing in the programme.
For longer-term tracking, be
mindful of issues around tracking
the private information of children
and young people. Self-reporting
(e.g. using social media-based
surveys) could provide a way
around this limitation, though
it does raise questions around
reliability of information.
Bear in mind that where young
people are involved in several
initiatives, it might be difficult to
separate out the impacts of a
particular programme. In such
instances, it might make sense to
collaborate with others active in
the space to measure the collective
impact of various interventions.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
CASE STUDY
CAP YOUTH EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE
CAP Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP YEI)
is a Kenyan NGO which provides employability
skills training to vulnerable youth. CAP YEIs
programs are based on its proven Basic
Employability Skills Training (BEST) model,
which was developed in India. The model
places a significant focus on providing both
hard technical skills as well as soft life skills
offered within an experiential framework that
prioritises the demonstration of competence
over the mere acquisition of knowledge. The
model also pays close attention to employer
needs with each course started only on the
basis of a prior market scan carried out to
estimate employability potential and identify
possible business partners.
To deliver the program CAP YEI created a
partnership ecosystem comprising over 1,500
businesses and industries of all sizes. The
organisation created a network of 15 training
centers to deliver the courses and directly
trained close to 10,000 youth, achieving a
successful transition rate (learning to earning)
averaging 80% (75% through entry level jobs
and 5% small business set up).
A longer version of this case study is available on the Challenge wiki at: http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao
P 32
CAP-YEI measures the success of their competency-based skills training for
vulnerable young Kenyans by the number of young people that end up in work,
entrepreneurship or further education on completion of training, and uses
longitudinal studies to track longer-term impacts.
survey confirmed that the BEST model has
MEASURING SUCCESS WITH A both an immediate and longer-term impact on
FOCUS ON JOBS vulnerable youth. Beneficiaries reported that
CAP YEI has invested in a robust M&E system the technical skills enable them to enter the
which includes an in-house management workforce and succeed as employees while
information system as well as regular quality others started successful small business. 80%
and results assessments. Success is measured of the youth also reported that the life skills
by the number of youth who proceed through training increased their self-confidence and
the different pathways to secure either an resilience which enabled them to navigate
inevitable challenges in the world of work
entry level job, start a small business or secure
and life. The survey also showed that the
an opportunity to go for further learning.
aspirations of the youth did not fade over time
With the support of CAP YEIs learning partner, but actually increased. Most importantly a large
the University of Minnesota (UMN)25 they also majority were able to realise some of these
followed a cohort of youth beneficiaries over aspirations or were making concrete plans to
five years and interviewed selected cohorts do so.
each year to establish longer-term impact
of the program on youth. This longitudinal
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
A vast literature exists YOUTH EMPLOYMENT
on the subjects of youth
ILO World Employment and Social
unemployment, employability Outlook 2016: Trends for Youth:
and skills. The following Includes interactive map showing
is a selection of resources in which countries it is hardest for
consulted or recommended young people to find work.
http://bit.ly/2ceemg0
during the Challenge process.
The list is not exhaustive and S4YE (Goldin, N. & M. Hobson with
will continue to evolve on the P. Glick, M. Lundberg, S. Puerto).
Challenge wiki, available at 2015. Toward Solutions for Youth
Employment: A Baseline for 2015.
http://snipbfp.org/2rMuyao Solutions for Youth Employment,
Washington D.C. Wide-ranging
overview of what we know (and dont
know) about youth unemployment.
http://bit.ly/20GVKYb
World Bank (2006) World
Development Report 2007:
Development and the Next
Generation. Seminal work looking
at challenges and opportunities
facing young people aged 12-24
as they transition into adulthood,
including issues relating to
education and employment. http://
bit.ly/2sKN8Vo
WHAT BUSINESS CAN DO
WEF (2015) Disrupting
Unemployment: Business-led
Solutions for Action. Portal that
consolidates information on
business-led solutions, often
implemented in multistakeholder
partnerships, for addressing skills
gaps, fostering entrepreneurship
and facilitating the talent market.
http://bit.ly/2p1jlkR
Opportunity Youth (2011)
Connecting Youth and Business: A
Toolkit for Employers : Guidance for
companies wanting to help young
people get workplace experience
and skills. Includes practical tools
such as monitoring and evaluation
metrics and sample scorecards.
Useful list of practical resources
and potential partners (US-based).
http://bit.ly/2pEiIl9
ManPowerGroup (2012) Youth
Unemployment Challenges and
Solutions: What Business Can
Do Now: Summarises barriers to
youth employability and suggests 5
groups of business-driven solutions
P 33
employers can adopt, with practical
examples of each solution.
http://bit.ly/29UhP07
Making Cents International
manages the Youth Economic
Opportunities network (YEO
Network) which has more than
35,000 members from across
the development spectrum and
hosts a flagship annual Global
Youth Economic Opportunities
Summit. The YOE network hosts
an extensive library of resources
on youth workforce development,
entrepreneurship and financial
inclusion. http://bit.ly/2sst3jJ
Lifeskills created with Barclays:
leading example of online
employability skills training offering.
Works with schools and businesses
to reach over 4.3 million youth to
date. http://bit.ly/2k45OLA
International Youth Foundation:
global youth network focused on
promoting youth development
through partnership, including
the flagship youth employability
initiative, Passport to Success.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
Useful library of resources.
http://www.iyfnet.org/library
JAWorldwide: long-standing
global youth network partnering
with some of the worlds largest
companies to reach over 1 million
young people with work readiness
and entrepreneurship skills
training, delivered by volunteers.
https://www.jaworldwide.org
IDENTIFYING THE DEMAND
World Bank Global Economic
Prospects: Global and regional
economic outlooks that identify
growth sectors and regions.
Available in several languages.
http://bit.ly/1gIuEF3
International Youth Foundation
(2012) Ensuring Demand-Driven
Youth Training Programs: How to
Conduct an Effective Labor Market
Assessment: Toolkit offering guidance
on understanding the employment
dynamics of local economies;
including a proven methodology
for carrying out a labour market
assessment. http://bit.ly/2pT0xsX
UNDERSTANDING THE
LOCAL CONTEXT
World Bank EdStats database: http://
bit.ly/2pSXSzE Core Indicators is
EdStats core dataset of over 1000
internationally-comparable education
indicators for all educational
levels from pre-primary to tertiary
education. Data on more than 200
countries collated from the Bank,
UNESCO and ILO.
http://bit.ly/2p1ma5B
Global Partnership for Youth
Employment (2012) Measuring
Success of Youth Livelihood
Interventions A practical guide to
monitoring and evaluation: Although
primarily an M&E toolkit, Note 2 (p11)
provides guidance on how to conduct
youth and market assessments and
how to use these to diagnose which
PARTNERING
determinants are influencing youth
outcomes. http://bit.ly/2p4co3w
APPRENTICESHIPS
The Global Apprenticeship Network
(GAN) http://bit.ly/2qzrWfN is a
business-driven alliance with the
overarching goal of encouraging
and linking business initiatives
on skills and employment
opportunities for youth, notably
through apprenticeships. The
GAN website contains a wealth of
resources on apprenticeships and
other work readiness programmes,
including a Catalogue of Best
MEASURING RESULTS
Practices. http://bit.ly/2p19LyA
For information about how
different countries approach
apprenticeships, including
challenges and lessons learnt, see
the ILOs 2012 contribution to the
G20 Task Force on Employment:
Overview of Apprenticeship Systems
and Issues, which has data on
selected G20 countries.
http://bit.ly/2p19Oug
The Partnering Initiative has a wealth
of resources on how to optimise
cross-sectoral multi-stakeholder
partnerships. http://bit.ly/WBshzs
See also the Private Sector Toolkit
for Working with Youth, produced
jointly by Restless Development and
P 34
the United Nations Programme on
Youth, which includes a selection
of case studies on how companies
work with youth. http://bit.
ly/2prvYcs
Global Partnership for Youth
Employment (2012) Measuring
Success of Youth Livelihood
Interventions A practical guide to
monitoring and evaluation: Provides
a basic set of concepts and tools
to carry out impact evaluations.
The manual is complemented by
practical online resources, including
examples of indicators, survey
instruments, terms of reference,
and evaluation reports specific to
the youth livelihoods field.
http://bit.ly/2p4co3w
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017 P 35

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This report was authored by Hester le Roux, Challenge Director at Business Fights
GLOBAL APPRENTICESHIP NETWORK (GAN) PLAN UK
Poverty, with support from Beth Jenkins, Insights Director, Business Fights Poverty. Cristina Gueco Lea Moubayed-Haidar

A great many people gave up their time to contribute to the development of GOOD SHEPHERD SERVICES PRINCES TRUST
this report, through participating in online and in-person events, providing Alyssa Garcia Ben Marson, Philip Kyle

research interviews and preparing case studies for inclusion in the guide. We HARAMBEE PRINCES TRUST INTERNATIONAL
would like to acknowledge the following individuals: Rob Urquhart Felicity Hosking, Anaily Castellano

HELEN OSBORNE ADVISORY QUEST ALLIANCE (INDIA)

Helen Osborne Abhijeet Mehta

ACCENTURE CAP-YOUTH EMPOWERMENT INSTITUTE INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANISATION RESTLESS DEVELOPMENT

Lisa Neuberger-Fernandez, Vasi Ndungu Kahihu (ILO) Paul Comyn Jack McQuibban
Nadarajah INTERNATIONAL YOUTH FOUNDATION ROBIN HOOD
CITI FOUNDATION
ANGLO AMERICAN Anuar Juraidini, Dorothy Stuehmke, Bill Reese Amanda Stern, Kwaku Driskell, Lindsey
Christian Spano, Richard Morgan Hui Wen Chan, Amal Gomersall Sheskey
JAWORLDWIDE
BARCLAYS CODESPA Asheesh Advani, Brandie Conforti, SOLUTIONS FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT (S4YE)
Abiezer Mendez, Kate McGoey, Katie Maria Jesus Perez, Eduardo Gomez Elizabeth Bintliff Estera Barbarasa, Nicole Goldin
Hyson, Mark Thain, Debbie Phillips, Renu THE MASTERCARD FOUNDATION TEACHFIRST
UK DEPARTMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL
Kumar Karen Moore, Koffi Assouan Graihagh Crawshaw, Jess Hardwick,
DEVELOPMENT
BEBETTER (CHINA) Lindsey Napier, Moira McKerracher, Louise Preston, Rebecca Scott
MICROSOFT PHILANTHROPIES
Judy Shu Olympia Wereko-Brobby, Patricia Seex, Yvonne Thomas WORLD BANK
Richard Sandall, Caroline Woods David Robalino
BRAC PEARSON
Tahsinah Ahmed, Samira Syed THE MASTERCARD FOUNDATION Candice Naicker, Carolynne Lengfeld, YOUTH BUSINESS INTERNATIONAL
YOUTH THINK TANK David Yunger, Kelly Trakalo, Rebecca Meagan Rees, Nick Milne
BRAC UK
Augustine Malija Vaughan-Williams, Teodora Berkova,
Emilia Nunnari, Lewis Temple, YELLOWWOODS
Zoya Shabir FOUNDERS4SCHOOLS Gemma Terry
Nicola Galombik
JC Lacoste PER SCHOLAS
BUSINESS FIGHTS POVERTY
Graham Baxter FUNDACION TOMILLO Kelly Richardson, Jacob McIntosh and
Leticia Henar, Lucia Velasco Priya Ramanathan
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
ENDNOTES
1
International Labour Organisation (ILO). 2016.
World Employment Social Outlook 2016: Trends
for Youth. Page 3. The ILO defines young
people as those aged between 15-24 years old.
2
International Labour Organisation (ILO). 2016.
Page 45. The working poverty rate is defined
as the share of the employed population in
extreme or moderate poverty i.e. with per capita
income or consumption of less than USD3.10
per day.
3
Barton, D; Farrell, D & M Mourshed. 2013.
Education to Employment: Designing a System
that Works. Washington D.C.: McKinsey Center
for Government. Page 12.
4
Goldin, N & M Hobson with P Glick, M
Lundberg & S Puerto. 2015. Toward Solutions
for Youth Employment: A Baseline for 2015.
Solutions for Youth Employment, Washington
D.C. Page 9.
5
Goldin et al. 2015. Page 9.
Goldin et al. 2015. Page 9.
6 11
7
Barton, Dominic; Farrell, Diana & Mona
Mourshed. 2013. Education to Employment:
Designing a System that Works. Washington
D.C.: McKinsey Center for Government. Page 12.
8
David N F Bell & David G Blanchflower. 2011.
Young people and the Great Recession. Oxford
Review of Economic Policy (2011) 27 (2): 241-
267.
9
ManpowerGroups Annual Talent Shortage
Survey for 2016-2017 found that 40% of
employers surveyed cannot fill available
positions due to a lack of the right skills. Key
results are available from http://bit.ly/2rQqBmj
10
Robalino, D et al. 2013. Youth employment:
a human development agenda for the next
decade. Social protection and labor discussion
paper; no. 1308. Washington DC; World Bank
Group. Page 16. The authors list the following
constraints to youth employment: Individual
characteristics including a lack of social networks,
low household income and psychological
biases (in addition to lack of skills); market and
government failures including distorting labour
regulations, low bargaining power, lack of
information about where the jobs are, employers
lack of information about where the workers are;
and macroeconomic factors including lack of
access to capital, constraints to business creation
and job creation, economic slowdown, age
cohort size, and conflict and violence.
Findings of interviews, online discussion and
company workshop coordinated by Business
Fights Poverty as part of the research conducted
for this Youth Employability Challenge.
12
Statistics in this section were drawn from the
following sources (full references are provided
in the bibliography): International Labour
Organisation (ILO) 2016; Goldin et al 2015;
Barton et al 2013; McNamer 2014; IFC Jobs Study,
2013. Young people in these statistics typically
refers to youth aged between 15-24 years old.
13
LinkedIn Global recruiting Trends 2016, cited
in FastCompany This LinkedIn Recruiters Tips
For Showcasing Soft Skills On Job Interviews. 31
January 2017. Available from
http://bit.ly/2mJvUoE
14
Moore, K and M Novy-Marx. Building an
Evidence Base for the Soft Skills Movement. 28
October 2016. Available from
http://bit.ly/2qWe1BT
15
Moore, K and M Novy-Marx. Building an
Evidence Base for the Soft Skills Movement.
28 October 2016. Available from http://bit.
ly/2qWe1BT. This blog provides a useful
snapshot of recent research into soft skills and
how they can be measured and signaled. For an
example of innovative use of mobile technology
in this space, see www.knack.it which uses a
gamefied approach to assessing and signalling
soft skills.
16
British Chambers of Commerce survey of
3,000 firms, reported in BBC 2 October 2014
Young people lack workplace skills, firms say in
survey. Available from http://bbc.in/1BB0c8N
17
Goldin, N & M Hobson with P Glick, M
Lundberg & S Puerto. 2015. Toward Solutions
for Youth Employment: A Baseline for 2015.
Solutions for Youth Employment, Washington
D.C. Page11.
18
See, for example, ManpowerGroup
Teachable Fit: A new approach to Easing
the Talent Mismatch, May 2010. In South
P 36
Africa, Harambee draws on rich analytics and
research of performance data to enable its
partners to use new proxies for judging young
peoples potential and skills.
19
This framework was introduced in Nelson, J.
1996. Business as Partners in Development:
Creating wealth for countries, companies and
communities. The International Business
Leaders Forum, UNDP and the World Bank.
20
http://bit.ly/2qoowQv
21
http://bit.ly/1Is8sfQ
Goldin, N & M Hobson with P Glick, M
22 & 23
Lundberg & S Puerto. 2015. Toward Solutions
for Youth Employment: A Baseline for 2015.
Solutions for Youth Employment, Washington
D.C. Page 86.
24
According to the International Labour
Organisation (ILO), decent work involves
opportunities for work that is productive and
delivers a fair income, security in the workplace
and social protection for families, better
prospects for personal development and social
integration, freedom for people to express
their concerns, organise and participate in the
decisions that affect their lives and equality of
opportunity and treatment for all women and
men. More information about the ILOs Decent
Work Agenda is available from
http://bit.ly/1MPPcsN.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
From 2012-16, The MasterCard Foundation
25
partnered with CAP YEI as part of the Learn,
Earn and Save initiative across three East African
countries, with the intention of scaling models
that worked. The University of Minnesota acted
as learning partner for the entire initiative (see
http://bit.ly/2tnjdzG). A second partnership with
CAP YEI commenced in 2016 (see http://bit.
ly/2sHqFHU).
METHODOLOGY
This guide was produced as
part of the Business Fights
Poverty Challenge on Youth
Employability. The Challenge
considered what business
can do, working with its
partners at the country level,
to boost youth employability
and employment, and how
to accelerate the level of
business engagement with
the ultimate objective of
leveraging private sector
resources to help reduce
youth unemployment.
The guide captures key messages
and lessons learned as shared by
companies and their partners in civil
society, the donor community, and
government, about how business can
best support young people as they
transition into work. In keeping with
the Challenges approach, the guide
was developed via a multi-stakeholder
process in which many organisations
P 37
contributed practical insights via
dialogues, interviews, internal
documents, and review of various
drafts of this document (contributors
are listed in the Acknowledgements
section on page 35).
Key engagement events included an
online discussion on 9 November
2016 and practitioners workshops
in London and New York. An
extensive literature review was also
conducted, and the guide builds
on existing knowledge and tools on
supporting youth employability and
skills development.
Anglo American, Citi Foundation,
Pearson, Barclays, UK Department for
International Development (DFID) and
BRAC supported the development of
this guide financially and/or in-kind.
Business Fights Poverty facilitated the
process and managed the drafting
and production of this document.
BFP YOUTH EMPLOYABILITY CHALLENGE | BUSINESS GUIDE | JULY 2017
BIBLIOGRAPHY
A rich literature exists on Barton, Dominic; Farrell, Diana
youth unemployment and & Mona Mourshed. 2013.
skills development, and many Education to Employment:
Designing a System that Works.
reports, articles, toolkits and
Washington D.C.: McKinsey
databases were consulted in Center for Government.
the preparation of this guide.
Some of the key resources Bell, David N F & David G
Blanchflower. 2011.
consulted include:
Young people and the Great
Recession. Oxford Review of
Economic Policy (2011) 27 (2):
241-267.
Dunbar, M. 2010. Guidance note:
Engaging the Private Sector in
Skills Development. A DFID
practice paper.
Dunbar, M. 2016. Skills provision
and private sector demand.
Health and Education Advice
and Resource Team (HEART),
Oxford, UK.
Elder, S. 2015. Global Employment
Trends for Youth 2015: Scaling
up investments in decent jobs
for youth. Geneva: International
Labour Office.
Glick, P; C Huang & N Gonzalez
with RAND Corporation.
2015. The Private Sector and
Youth Skills and Employment
Programs in Low- and Middle-
Income Countries. Solutions for
Youth Employment, Washington
D.C.
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