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Access to basic education: Combating both child and adult illiteracy and ensuring free universal and compulsory basic education, respecting the Minimum Age Convention as well as the Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention, are necessary conditions for ensuring future employability.
School to work transition: Targeted programmes that combine work experience with classroom training, job search and vocational guidance and counselling can be highly effective for those unemployed youth, who need to attain the social skills and work habits required to access work.
Relevance to labour market needs: Major reforms are required for education and skill development systems to make them more relevant to labour market needs. Reforms should also focus on facilitating learning, and not just on training for narrow occupational categories.
Lifelong learning: Lifelong learning should be the conceptual basis guiding all future education and training policies. Lifelong learning is about acquiring and updating all kinds of abilities, interest, knowledge and qualifications. The concept of lifelong learning encompasses the full range of formal, non-formal and informal learning activity.
Involving social partners: Employers’ and workers’ organisation should be consulted in both the design and implementation of skill development programmes, ensuring active participation of young people to the process.
Training for peace: The market and labour markets in countries emerging from armed conflict are extremely dynamic. Training needs to be adapted to the changed demands for skilled labour and the demand for goods and services in the communities. Education and training should contribute to reconciliation and peace building by creating a non-segregated, non-discriminatory, non-violent training environment for youth. Equal access of youth from all ethnic and minority groups should be guaranteed. Sports and cultural activities within the light of the creation of a culture of peace should complement educational and training activities.
Equal Opportunities for Young Women and Men:
In many countries, where boys and girls have equal access to education, girls are doing better than boys at school. In a great many countries girls are not getting the same education opportunities as boys with serious gender gaps in literacy as a consequence. Regardless of these differences in education systems, young women have in general greater difficulties than young men in entering - and staying in - the world of work, because of discriminatory policies, structural barriers and cultural prejudices. All countries need to review, rethink and reorient their policies to ensure that there are equal opportunities for young women when they enter the workforce and throughout their working lives.
Approximately half of all workers in the world are in gender-dominated occupations where at least 80 per cent of workers are of the same sex, a form of labour market rigidity that reduces employment opportunity and impairs economic efficiency. Occupational segregation is also associated with lower wage rates for women, as typical women’s occupations tend to have lower pay, lower status and fewer possibilities for advancement than do male occupations. In situations of crisis, where training and job opportunities are even more limited, girls are the first victims of exclusion. There is the potential for great economic and social benefits by implementing effective national policies for equal opportunities.
In the national action plans the following areas need particular attention:
Set objectives and targets: Each country should set objectives and targets to rectify the gender disparities in access to education, training and labour markets, and develop and implement the necessary gender sensitive policies in these areas. Indicators have to be developed.
Mainstream equal opportunities in all public policies: Governments need to make gender analysis of both new and existing policies and integrate equal opportunities between men and women in all these policies. Public policies dealing with areas that prepare youth for the job market are the most important fields of action.
Focus both on equal opportunities and equal treatment: Education, training and employment should be seen to provide equality of opportunity and treatment for young women and men; as well as recognizing the importance of lifelong learning that guarantees the employability of young women and men throughout their life cycle. For young women, the latter is crucial as they are more likely than men to be leaving and then re-entering the work force at different stages of their life, or changing jobs to suit growing family responsibilities.
Offer family friendly support mechanisms: Equality of opportunity and treatment will require that the necessary support mechanisms (child care centres, proximity and timing of training, etc.) be in place so that young women can take advantage of opportunities which are offered.
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