The largest generation in history is entering the workforce, seeking opportunities to improve their lives and livelihoods through gainful employment. How many jobs are available and what type of jobs they are (e.g., formal versus informal) in large part defines if or how much young people are able to avoid poverty, have food security and a healthy diet, contribute positively to their communities and other outcomes. In many of the contexts in which USAID works, this means employing more people than have been employed in older generations and improving the overall quality of jobs to help deliver economic transformation.
Employment creation activities are often categorized into one of two categories: supply-side or demand-side approaches. Supply-side approaches are those that strengthen the supply of the workforce and usually focus on providing job-relevant skills to prospective job seekers so that they will be better equipped to enter the workforce. Demand-side approaches seek to increase demand for more workers by encouraging job creation through private sector engagement, market systems development and/or policy change. These two types of approaches each have their benefits and drawbacks — you can’t train youth into jobs that don’t exist, but youth also need to be trained in the skills required for jobs that are or become available.
In this webinar, we will hear from panelists working on youth employment issues in international development on their perspective for how to balance out supply- and demand-side approaches to deliver better youth employment outcomes. We hope that attendees will leave the event knowing more about how to assess when each approach is useful, the drawbacks of focusing on only one of the two approaches and how to successfully implement activities that address supply- and demand-side aspects simultaneously.
