Save the Children Shares Experience in Helping Youth Find Jobs

Save the Children on April 18-20 organized a learning meeting to share its experience in helping deprived and at-risk youth aged 15-24 become better prepared for the job market.

At the annual Skills to Succeed learning meeting, participants from six countries reflected on what they have learnt in each country and shared knowledge and increase understanding of implementation challenges and new strategies to improve programming to address the youth employment crisis. They also focused on strengthening partnerships with youth, the private sector and policy makers. Participants visited Skills to Succeed sites near Da Nang, talking to beneficiaries and getting their feedback on the program's activities and impacts.

"As the economic environment changes, the skills needed to succeed in the new job market also change. Not having the right skills will place a lot of young people in a very challenging situation," said Gunnar Andersen, Country Director of Save the Children in Vietnam. "In growing economies such as Vietnam, a large proportion of the population is 15-24 years old and is seeking jobs for the first time. However, there remains a mismatch between the knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired in school and the reported needs of employers for entry level workers."

In response to this "skills mismatch," Save the Children's Skills to Succeed program equips disadvantaged youth with the skills, networks and opportunities they need to get decent jobs or build their own businesses. With better income and more stability, youth can escape poverty and start to bring prosperity to their families. 

To date, nearly 50,000 young women and men have found decent jobs or built their own businesses through Save the Children's Skills to Succeed program across Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam with the support of its main donor, Accenture.

In Vietnam, Skills to Succeed reached over 2,000 in school and out of school youth in Da Nang and Can Tho from 2014-2015, of which more than 70 percent got jobs or built businesses. In a continuation of the project to 2017, and building on its experience with financial literacy training, Save the Children will run the "Skills and Savings to Succeed" program. Innovative uses of Facebook will be added that encourage youth to save their money.

In Vietnam, Save the Children has supported over 4 million children to get a healthy start in life, receiving better education, and ensuring they were kept safe from violence, neglect, abuse and exploitation in the last decade.