Education Costa Rica Project #29260

Employability and soft skills for vulnerable youth

by Fundacion Accion Joven

Employability and soft skills for vulnerable youth

Summary

The Youth Employability Program supports vulnerable youth in the challenging transtion from high school to the formal job market, and/or higher education.The implemented methodology strengthens youth`s soft skills, devlopes relevant competences, and promotes the ellaboration of a life plan with short, mid, and long term goals. The Youth Employability Program includes: 8 participatory workshops, company visits, internships, and the oportunity to access technical or college education

$12,000
total goal

$7,708
remaining

24
donors

0
monthly donors

2
fundraisers

5
years

Challenge

In Costa Rica, 172,136 young people between 15 and 24 years of age do not work or study (II Continuous Employment Survey, 2016). In addition, Costa Rica is the Central American country with the highest rates of youth unemployment (48%). This has very serious implications in terms of social, economic and citizen security. Young people who do not study or work are much more vulnerable to engaging in illicit activities, being recruited into gangs and living in poverty.

Solution

The Youth Employability Program prepares 10th and 11th grade public school students, supporting them in the difficult transition from school to formal work and connecting them with scholarships for higher education. Through participatory workshops, we work with young people in the development of a life plan and in the strengthening of the necessary skills to obtain and maintain formal employment. This is complemented by company visits, internships, scholarships, and followup from Accion Joven.

Long-Term Impact

We offer training and capacity building for employability to vulnerable youth, supporting them in the transition from secondary education to formal employment. We generate in the participants tools for social mobility through access to formal employment opportunities and university studies. Indirectly this has repercussions in the family nucleus of the participants, representing an economic support to solve the necessities of the household and to achieve social mobility .