Youth Building the Future in Colombia SUMMARY 
In January 2015 Plan international  Colombia started “Youth Building the Future” that was part of a regional project implemented also in Brazil and El Salvador. The project equipped young people with the skills and opportunities to engage in enterprise and employment in the department of Cauca, Cali, Bogotá and Medellín. In 3 years, 2.969 disadvantaged youth (60% women) completed life skills, business and market-driven vocational trainings and 2.186 of them moved on to decent work - either in a job or by establishing/strengthening their own businesses. This ensured  future economic security for themselves and their families. This project in Colombia was supported by Plan’s Regional Office of the Americas (ROA) with technical assistance and (academic) research. Furthermore, 6 partnerships with companies were signed, and 53 mentors supported the young participants. 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 number 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 in the target areas are characterized by armed conflict, social and gender-based violence, displacement, over-population, lack of formal jobs and weak local economies. This context limits 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 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. The final beneficiaries are 2.969 vulnerable young people (aged between 17 and 30) where 60% are young women. The targeted youth had little or no job experience and 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 2.186 entered in the labour market or started their own businesses. The project consists of three components that mutually reinforce each other: 
Component 1- Private Sector Engagement and Youth Employment Enabler Networks: consisted on the creation of shared value implementation approaches and partnerships (so called Smart Business Alliance) with companies, governmental organisations, training partners and community-based organizations. 
Component 2- Training, Placement & Start-up: included the recruitment of young participants followed by skills training (vocational, technical, entrepreneurship and/or life skills), mentoring, work readiness support and transition to decent work. 
Component 3- Research and Evidence Gathering: aimed to address the demand for applied research on good practices within  Youth Empowerment Solution (YES) programs and to enable further up-scaling and replication in Latin America. 

Plan’s project aimed to fill in the gap between offer and demand in the labour market by engaging the private sector in the development of curricula and training the targeted youth with the skills and knowledge demanded by them. The project provided not only technical/vocational and entrepreneurship trainings, but also coaching, life skills trainings and work readiness support. The project ensured also that the targeted youth were placed in jobs or supported to start their own businesses. 
Smart business alliances were established to promote employment and business opportunities for vulnerable youth and create awareness about gender equality. Also alumni network were established to stay in touch with the youth and follow-up their personal and professional development 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 based on economic and social indicators. The project achieved 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 training providers, governmental organisations in charge of youth employment, private sector entities and individual companies, the project secured the long-term institutional engagement of key stakeholders to implement youth economic empowerment programs beyond the project.