Making youth employable

© UNESCO / Jack Ling

Keeping pace with a changing world by strengthening ties with the labour market

Lay Cheng Tan and Erika French-Arnold, UNESCO Bangkok

Universities are seen as the repositories of valuable human capital and higher education as a key sector for promoting social and economic development. The accelerating shift to high-technology and information economy further pressurizes the higher education system into preparing a competent workforce to meet changing demands for labour.

While tertiary education enrolment increased fivefold from 28.6 million in 1970 to 152.2 million in 2007,[1] global unemployment soared by 34 million from 2007 to 2009,[2] thus creating a highly competitive environment for young people. In 2009, there were 80.7 million young people looking for work, an increase of 7.8 million since 2007.[3] A reduction in the number of jobs is certainly an issue, but supply-side factors are not the only dynamic in play.

“We’re living in a time of rapid technology and labour market change. Employers and industries need people with creative and higher-order thinking skills. Young people, especially those who enter the job market for the first time, have to keep pace with these changes,” noted Gwang-Jo Kim, Director of the UNESCO Asia and the Pacific Regional Bureau for Education, in Bangkok, Thailand.

But how do they keep up with the changes and remain competitive in a knowledge-based, globalized economy? These questions are critical as countries continue to address rising youth unemployment. 

Distortion of perspectives

Supported by the Japanese Funds-in-Trust, UNESCO Bangkok initiated a study to examine the employability of university graduates in China, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines in 2009. The results demonstrated a distortion of perspectives among the graduates, universities and employers.

Graduates generally believed their education and skills were sufficient. The universities declared their students to be well prepared for the transition to the workplace. Unfortunately, the employers concluded that new graduates lacked vital skills for employment, citing unrealistic expectations and demands for higher salaries as examples.

The oversupply of graduates in some fields was not properly addressed. Students enrolled in over-subscribed programmes, leading to a glut of graduates unable to find jobs in their areas of specialization, such as nursing and information technology in the Philippines. The lack of work experience, particularly in the cutting-edge industries of the IT sector, was another factor tending to limit graduate employment prospects. Faced with these difficulties, many ended up underemployed or employed in areas for which they were not trained.

Ways to reduce the gap

It is crucial for job-seekers to cultivate those qualities most sought after by employers, in addition to knowledge and work experience. These are what the researchers classified as "++ factors": they included motivation, an ability to think “outside the box”, problem-solving and communication skills, and an ability to work both as part of a team and independently. It was also vital that graduates liable to work in many different jobs and industries throughout their entire career should constantly improve and update their skills, and be willing to learn new technologies. Any sign that they possessed some of these qualities might persuade employers to offer them jobs.

In economies with limited job opportunities, entrepreneurship is seen as a viable option for new graduates to chart their own future by setting up their own businesses. To overcome barriers such as the shortage of start-up funds, insufficient knowledge of business practices and lack of motivation, it is necessary to design courses for entrepreneurship, organize extracurricular activities, and provide government support and funding as further encouragement. 

Linkages between universities and industries offering work-based projects and internships can also help universities to acquire valuable information to update their curricula, and students to gain practical work experience. Employers need to facilitate on-the-job training, particularly for specific skills or new applications and technologies.

Finally, the onus is not just on governments, educational institutions and employers to provide employment. Young people also have a responsibility to prepare themselves for a changing world by improving their knowledge and skills to meet the demands of employers and the realities of the workplace.

[1] UNESCO-UIS. 2009. Global Education Digest 2009. Comparing Education Statistics Across the World. UIS, Montreal.

[2] ILO. 2010. Global Employment Trends. January 2010. ILO, Geneva.

[3] ILO. 2010. Global Employment Trends for Youth. August 2010. ILO, Geneva.