The goal of this document is to help the reader better understand how to strengthen market assessments for youth workforce development programs. It considers issues, such as institutional capacity, local context, appropriate tools and approaches, and including youth in these assessments. The learning product is based on the experiences of three organizations, Education Development Center, Save the Children, and the International Rescue Committee, that conducted market assessment to develop and maintain market-driven youth workforce development programs. It shares the benefits and challenges of different approaches to market assessment and provides lessons learned and recommendations.

This publication is part of a series resulting from the SEEP Network “Youth Workforce Development: Using 100% Market-Driven Programs to Achieve 100% Employment” Practitioner Learning Program (PLP). The objective of the program is to identify, encourage, and disseminate the replicable strategies for market-driven programs that improve youth employment success and measure the effectiveness of these strategies.