The young population in Latin America and the Caribbean, jobs recovered faster than adults, but she unemployment rate, at 21.4%, is even higher than before the pandemic, when it stood at 18%. And that’s more than double the rate for people over 24, which is 9.6 percent, according to the International Labor Organization (ILO).
According to Labor outlook 2021 report for the region presented this week employs one in two people in the informal sector. That is, without stability in their employment, without benefits or social security, access to health, paid disability and the option of a retirement pension.
This problem mainly affects the young people. But the chances of entering and staying in this sector increase if they are women, mothers, migrants, people of color and with little schooling.
The training is one of the most important elements to a decent work, says the ILO. In the pandemic, “approximately 85% of participants in professional training courses and programs had to continue at a distance, from a face-to-face modality to a virtual one, from one day to the next.”
However, not all people were able to continue with their training processes due to lack of internet, adequate computer equipment or a suitable space for learning in their homes.
Those who start working as adolescents, or are young people with little experience and less development of work skills, are likely to have a higher occupational turnover. The fact that they are constantly changing jobs makes it difficult again “the possibility to build up specific qualifications”.
And if there is also little job offers for young people, they are less likely to get a job and more likely to be fired. This situation may discourage them from “looking for work or starting or continuing their studies.”
In the document, the ILO shares seven recommendations to face the challenge vocational training “and responds to the new needs of the labor market and demands of the productive sector”.
1. Modernize educational programs
Lead professional training programs for the development of transversal skillsincluding digital. It must be flexible and diverse to fill gaps in education and respond to the reality of different populations of young people.
It is best to opt for accelerated learning programs, with short and simple modules in Basic abilities of care, digital and socio-emotional. In addition, vocational training institutions need to train and re-qualify young people in the skills required by so-called green jobs.
2. Facilitate access to digital devices and connectivity
Enhance education initiatives through television, radio, online and in hybrid mode, and combine them with face-to-face. Invest in educational technology, long-distance education “to guarantee the continuity of learning at home”.
Design digital tools for low connectivity contexts and use in Mobile devices basics. Also provides transportation and maintenance subsidies for those who are in more unfavorable situations and guarantees free broadband access for their professional training.
“That connectivity is not an obstacle to the promotion of digitization and implies a greater risk of exclusion.” Well, delaying digital skills prevents them from accessing telework.
3. Promote the active training of teachers
The digitization accelerated by covid-19 has implied and will imply the development of new skills and abilities by teachers and trainers, which makes it necessary to improve their digital skills. ”
Governments and companies need to expand teacher education for the use of digital aids, learning platforms, course design through the use of technology and facilitation of distance education.
4. Promote greater engagement with the labor market and its needs
Being aware of the new skills and competencies required by the labor market will help vocational training institutions to training demands.
It requires “the generation or reinforcement of observatories or areas dedicated to the collection, analysis and monitoring of labor market data that have massive data analysis tools.” They will also allow monitoring of labor market trends and know the existing gaps between jobs and competencies of job seekers.
5. Provide greater mechanisms for evaluating public policies
Monitor professional training policies and programs aimed at digitization of institutions. Also evaluate training actions and their results to have input to improve them.
“It is necessary to monitor and evaluate the vocational training policies and of the training actions and their results, in such a way that there is input to improve it and make decisions. “
6.- Strengthen funding schemes for vocational training
Allocate more resources for the implementation of active labor market policies and implement a unemployment insurance. Also consider larger grants for programs focused on training high-demand job skills.
“It becomes relevant to underline the importance of strengthening the scope of vocational training, as it is the key to the retraining and retraining of young workers, as well as for the development of transversal and digital skills that seem fundamental in times of recovery and of productive transformation and is increasingly in demand. “
7. Develop a national system of care
The ILO also mentions the need to analyze the provision of unpaid carewhich is mostly done by women. The policies “did not take into account the specific challenges they faced and faced.”
Therefore, it is essential that vocational training policies gender perspective and articulate it with other labor market and social protection measures.
“In this highly changing context, the challenge for vocational training is to be able to respond to the new needs of the labor market and demands of the productive sector, and to accompany it in an articulated way with productive development and digital transformation policies,” closes the ILO.
Reference-www.eleconomista.com.mx