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.

This document shares three brief case studies, from Partners of the Americas in South America, the International Rescue Committee in West Africa, and Education Development Center in Haiti, that show how youth workforce development programs can form partnerships to help them be more market driven. These case studies showcase three different partnerships that help implementing organizations maintain and deepen a market orientation. The three practitioner agencies share their experiences and recommendations in forming partnerships to improve market focus.

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.

This document presents some of the basic principles and sample indicators of performance management that may help practitioners interested in monitoring and evaluation for youth-workforce development projects that are market driven. It also highlights experiences from three PLP partners in measuring causal-model indicators and the specific lessons they learned.

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.

This technical note presents the experience of two organizations- Fundación Paraguaya and Partners of the Americas- whose youth-workforce development programs actively participate in the market, selling the same goods and services that they train their students to provide and/or selling their own services as effective trainers of youth, as a way of both overcoming resource constraints and ensuring program quality and relevance.

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.

This document provides case studies of three different market-driven youth workforce development projects to demonstrate the variety of scale-up strategies of the three initiatives and offers examples and lessons learned. The study of each project has a brief description of the program; gives the rationale for the scale-up strategy selected; and discusses the scale-up activity, sharing challenges and approaches for staying market-driven. In addition, the discussions include specific recommendations drawn from each project’s experience.

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.

The overall objective of USAID/Nicaragua’s sustainable tourism activity is to assist Nicaragua in expanding the economic benefits of tourism to the less advantaged through the growth of small businesses, the protection of the country’s environment and natural resources, and improvement in the quality of public education and outreach. One of the activities principal goals is to increase MSME business growth in an environmentally sustainable manner through market-driven ecotourism development/linkage programs, cluster activities, and environmental protection in order to reduce poverty for the less advantaged.

This book explores in detail the challenges facing Africa’s youth in their transition from school to work, and proposes a strategy for meeting those challenges. It addresses the importance of investing in youth: not only because by 2010, youth will account for 28% of the population of Africa, but because labor is the most abundant asset in poor households in Africa, and improving the outcomes of labor is a key factor in moving out of poverty.

The book describes how Africa’s young people spend their time and presents a case for investing in youth in Africa, analyzing the two paths to working life for Africa’s youth: directly (without the benefit of education) and through school. It also presents new evidence on the effects of education on employment and income in selected countries, and examines youth unemployment and its determinants. The case studies conducted in selected African countries analyze policies and programs implemented on youth employment and suggest a policy framework to help African youth successfully transition to working life.

The book is available for purchase through multiple online outlets, including the World Bank. It can be read online through Google Books, or downloaded from the World Bank website as a PDF document through the link below.

The International Rescue Committee and Fundacion Paraguaya invite you to engage in a participatory learning event, the School-based Businesses workshop, to be held on Thursday September 10th, 2009 at the International Rescue Committee offices in Washington DC.

International Rescue Committee, Conference Room,
1730 M Street, NW – Suite 505, Washington DC
Thursday September 10th, 2009

The goal of the School-based Businesses workshop is to empower practitioners through learning and exchange to design programs that incorporate enterprise development initiatives that respond to market opportunities and are appropriate and feasible in educational programs. The objective of this workshop is to identify, promote and disseminate replicable approaches for market-based education provision and to consider the effectiveness of these strategies.

The IRC and the Fundacion Paraguaya are accepting proposals to present at this workshop until Monday, August 17th. For more information about presenting or attending this workshop, download the announcement attached below.

This report summarizes the results of a field test of the Market Assessment Toolkit for Vocational Training Providers and Youth, which aims to assist vocational training programs in becoming more market-driven. The report summarizes the main findings of the field test in Northern Uganda in terms of the toolkit’s utility, as well as providing more specific recommendations for vocational training providers based on findings from the market assessment.

The report notes that the toolkit is successful in enabling vocational training providers to analyze local market conditions, identifying potential collaborations with the private sector, and creating flexibility for use throughout all phases of training efforts. Key recommendations include that the toolkit be improved to better identify new skills for income generation, and that it be supplemented with an abridged version for programs with time or resource constraints.

For many youth in Africa, the educational systems in African nations are not adequate preparation for the workplace, as the curriculum is mostly theoretical. There is often a mismatch of skills, with most educational institutions still offering courses that are no longer relevant to the current job market, given current economic trends. This raises the following questions:

• How is the skills gap defined more specifically, a prerequisite for designing and implementing adequate solutions?
• How would private sector employment evolve if the match between skills and private sector needs were better synchronized?
• What is the responsibility of the private sector in promoting youth employment?

This study, done in Ghana and Senegal, seeks to address these questions. It finds that the markets for entry-level labor in both countries have great potential, but need to address issues of attrition (turnover rates), literacy efforts, gender disparities, IT and leadership skills, and so-called “soft skills” (especially professional maturity). The report contains extensive detail for each market. Download the full report below.