YOUTH AND SKILLSPutting education to work

Pauline RoseCairo, Egypt

April 2013

@efareport / #YouthSkillsWork

Key messages: EFA Global Monitoring Report 2012

Progress towards Education for All is stagnating

Aid to education is slowing down

Slow progress has left a huge skills deficit among young people

Poor urban and rural youth, especially women, urgently need support to acquire skills

Number of out-of-school children of primary school age, 1999–2010

Progress towards UPE has ground to a halt

Source: UIS database

Youth and skills

Pathways to skills

One in four young people is in a job being paid less than $1.25 per dayOne in five young people

in the Arab States countries has not completed primary school

One in six of the world’s people is aged between 15-24-years-old

One in two in the Arab States are under 25 years old

One in eight young people is unemployed

Pathways to skills

Technical and vocational skills

Transferable skills Foundation Skills

Pathways to skills

A primary and lower secondary education gives young people foundation skills.

Young people learn transferable skills and technical and vocational at upper secondary school.

Pathways to skills

Work-based training teaches transferable and technical and vocational skills through direct work experience.

200 million young people need a second chance.

Pathways to skills

Poverty is a barrier to young people acquiring foundation skills

Not completed lower secondary school, 15 to 24 year olds, by wealth

Source: World Inequality Database on Education: www.education-inequalities.org

In Yemen, 9 in 10 poor, rural young women do not acquire foundation skills

Source: World Inequality Database on Education: www.education-inequalities.org

Yement: Not completed lower secondary school, 15 to 24 year olds, by wealth, location and gender

In Jordan, many young women are not even seeking work

Source: Understanding Children’s Work (2012).

No education Primary Secondary HigherJordan

0

20

40

60

80

100

Female Male

Not

in e

duca

tion

or in

labo

ur f

orce

(%

)

Percentage of 15- to 24- year olds classified as ‘inactive’ by gender and education level in Jordan

• Make secondary school relevant to work• Egypt adaptation of German dual system• Injaz Al-Arab career guidance programme

Providing skills through secondary

schooling

• Support unemployed youth via training funds• Tunisia training fund

• Combine basic skills with employability training• Jóvenes programmes in Latin America

Targeting unemployed

youth

•Make foundation skills part of entrepreneurial skills training,combined with assets•Questscope in Jordan•Tackle discrimination•Ishraq programme in Egypt

Putting education to work

Ensure linkages between the education system and employers

Scale up programmes to reach the large numbers of unemployed

Make sure programmes target the most disadvantaged, including those working in poverty

3 overarching lessons

And finally… listen to the voices of young people

Although I haven’t completed my education I need a chance. We want to work and give something good to the country.

Young woman, Egypt

www.efareport.unesco.org

Blog: efareport.wordpress.comTwitter: @efareport #YouthSkillsWork