Youth Building the Future in El Salvador SUMMARY 
In January 2015 Plan International El Salvador started “Youth Building the Future” that was part of a regional project that was also implemented in Colombia and Brazil. The programme equipped young people with the skills and opportunities to engage in enterprise and employment in targeted regions in Ilobasco and Tejutepeque. In 3 years, 156 disadvantaged youth (46% women) completed life skills training and business skills training and 154 (45% women) of them moved on to decent work by establishing/strengthening their own businesses. This ensured future economic security for themselves and their families. This project was supported by Plan’s Regional Office of the Americas (ROA) with technical assistance and (academic) research. With youth in Latin America accounting for nearly one third of the population, they should be a major driver of regional economic growth. However, decent job opportunities remain inaccessible for large numbers of young underprivileged people, maintaining the cycle of poverty. The most important obstacles for inserting these youth into the labour market are their lack of professional qualifications and the requirement of prior experience. Young women face additional hurdles such as persistent gender stereotypes, discriminatory practices and adolescent pregnancy. Social instability situations, in target areas characterized by armed conflict, social and gender-based violence, displacement, over-population, lack of formal jobs and weak local economies, further limit business and entrepreneurial opportunities, fuelling many youth to engage in illicit activities. By given life-skills training and market-driven (based on a market scan) technical training to young people, they acquire the necessary skills to enter the job market as employees or entrepreneurs. By engaging companies for the development of training content and understanding their needs and expectations regarding future employees, the project facilitates the transit of vulnerable young people to decent jobs. Once these young people have the right skills and are either working or running their own business, they will be able to earn a decent income for themselves and their families. Due to deficiencies in education quality, and youth’s limited access to business networks, financial services and productive assets, a wide gap remains between the market’s demand and the provision of well-trained workers. Existing governmental training institutes cannot bridge the skills gap by technical trainings alone; soft skills trainings and post-graduate job insertion has proven to be essential for successful employment of youth.
Plan’s project aimed to fill in this gap by engaging the private sector in the development of curricula and train the targeted youth with the skills and knowledge demanded by the labour market. The project provided not only technical/vocational and entrepreneurship trainings, but also coaching, life skills trainings and work readiness support. Also the project ensured that the targeted youth are placed in jobs or helped to start a business. The final beneficiaries are 156 vulnerable young people (aged between 17 and 30) where 46% are young women in the Cabañas department in El Salvador. The targeted youth have little or no job experience and currently out of a formal job, in situations of social vulnerability, and with minimum educational attainment to access technical training. Young people were equipped with technical/vocational skills and entered in the labour market or started their own businesses. The project provided entrepreneurship and business management trainings, technical assistance,  mentoring and life skills trainings. The project ensured also that the targeted youth started their own businesses with contribution of seed capital. Smart business alliances were established to promote business opportunities for vulnerable youth and create awareness about gender equality. Also alumni network were established to stay in touch and follow-up the young people after completion of the training program. Furthermore a business case was developed with one private partner to show how the project has benefited both the young people and the private partner measured with economic and social indicators. The project is achieving sustainability by focusing in vulnerable youth in the target areas, improving their personal attitude and self-esteem and equipping them with technical and life skills to contribute to their economic security and therefore also financial sustainability for their families. By establishing strong networks with TVETs, governmental organisations in charge of youth empowerment and placement, private sectors entities and individual companies, the project is securing the long-term institutional engagement of key stakeholders to implement youth economic empowerment programs beyond the project