Decent Jobs for Rural Youth

Boosting job opportunities and strengthening the youth employment ecosystem in rural economies is critical to drive inclusive growth and sustainable development, leaving no one behind. It demands an integrated and coordinated approach that is gender-sensitive, rights-based, and underpinned by social dialogue, promoting job creation, human capital development and stimulating market efficiency through public employment services.

This training aimed at fostering the knowledge and the capacity of governments, social partners and global practitioners to effectively boost youth employment in the rural economy. It provided an in-depth understanding of the specific challenges faced by young people in rural areas, with a focus on developing countries, as well as evidence-based policies, programmes and multi-sectoral partnerships to strengthen the enabling environment needed to create and nurture decent jobs for rural youth.

OBJECTIVES

This training offered a solid understanding of the characteristics of rural labour markets and its dynamics in relation to youth employment, assessing the challenges and potential pathways to productive and decent work. By the end of this training, participants have:

• Explored the challenges and opportunities in promoting decent work for rural youth in developing countries;

• Analysed policy instruments, programmatic approaches, as well as relevant tools used by the ILO to promote decent jobs for rural youth;

• Discussed lessons learned from ILO rural youth projects and from partners.

Ultimately, this course has strengthened the participants’ capacity to design or review policy instruments and programmatic approaches for the promotion of youth employment in the rural economy. Furthermore, it has improved their ability to assess ongoing rural youth employment initiatives and propose actions to enhance their effectiveness.

CONTENT

The training was structured around the following modules:

• Module 1. Introduction: rural labour markets and youth employment

• Module 2. Creating jobs for rural youth

• Module 3. Boosting job quality for rural youth

• Module 4. Supporting labour transitions of rural youth

• Module 5. Boosting decent jobs for rural youth in rural tourism and the blue economy

• Module 6. Youth representation and engagement; Key takeaways and the way the forward

FORMAT AND METHODOLOGY

The training was held online for a duration of two weeks, offering an intense program of 25 hours of learning. It combined learning activities in the course platform with 6 days of virtual classroom. The virtual classroom offered live webinars (3 hours per day), with peer and trainer interaction, individual and structured group activities. A substantial amount of the time was dedicated to experience sharing. Webinars were supported by readings and short preparatory activities. A virtual clinic on rural youth projects from participants was set up in the course platform.

NUMBER OF HOURS: 25