A new program to boost employment for an exploding global youth population has been launched by Mennonite Economic Development Associates (MEDA).

Called YouthInvest, the job and business training program aims to train 50,000 young people in Morocco and Egypt.

“The global population of young people is soaring, but job prospects lag far behind,” says Kim Pityn, MEDA’s vice-president of international operations.

She cites United Nations data showing 46 percent of the world’s population to be under the age of 25. In the last three years this segment grew 10.5 percent, but youth employment grew only one-fifth of one percent.

“This growing gap poses some grim prospects as long-term joblessness erodes hope and increases susceptibility to recruitment by extremist groups,” says Pityn.

YouthInvest aims to boost financial literacy and entrepreneurship among Moroccan and Egyptian young people (ages 15-24) by providing its own version of Business 101 training and smoothing the way for them to access financial services that until now have been out of their reach. It will also help local microfinance institutions (MFIs) devise youth-centered financial services to meet the needs of this emerging segment, and work with banks to encourage youth-oriented savings accounts.

This will fill a gaping void in the offerings of MFIs and banks, which have tended to see young people as unstable, mobile, lacking collateral and having a low sense of responsibility.

“YouthInvest hopes to change that perception (and its reality) by offering strong market-based instruction that complements training they are getting through vocational programs,” says Pityn. “We’re noticing a lack of connection between jobs and what people are learning in school. Curriculum has not evolved to meet today’s needs.”

The goal is to prepare youth for successful entrepreneurship and employment by furnishing them with meaningful skills, work opportunities and integrated services.

The five-year $5 million program, sponsored primarily by The MasterCard Foundation, got underway late in 2009, based in Casablanca.

Courses are being offered through eight local partner agencies in various towns and regions.

While MEDA’s program currently targets 50,000 youth, Pityn predicts that in the next three years an additional 150,000 can be reached with greater access to savings and credit, increased incomes and wider skill sets, helping them find safe, self-sustaining livelihoods either through entrepreneurship or employment.

A second phase is being set up in Egypt, and could be replicated in countries like Jordan, Sudan and Yemen.

YouthInvest builds on a series of youth programs offered by MEDA. In Afghanistan it operates a program called Secure Futures, which trains construction trade apprentices who may want to start their own businesses. A program in Egypt provides customized micro-loans with educational and safety components to assist children who work in small family businesses.

Pityn sees a potential peace dividend in all of these programs.

“Long-term joblessness among young people can lead to mass emigration, social unrest and entrenched cycles of poverty, leading to an increased susceptibility to recruitment by extremist groups,” she says. “You can see the consequences in the daily headlines. But we believe these trends can be stemmed, even reversed, by providing young people with viable options for the future.” – MEDA News Service