Youth Employment Project in B&H

YEP is a new departure in internationally sponsored projects. Faced with the massive problem of youth unemployment, in a country already operating in a most complex post conflict environment; it aims to harness local expertise, both public and private sector, developing real and sustainable strategies and solutions. It starts by aiming to prevent a bad situation from getting worse.

Component 1 aims to significantly reduce the flow of underprepared and unskilled youth currently flooding the labour market pool. To do this we have to go into schools, preparing students for the transition to the world of work.

They need to see their options, understand the needs of the labour market and prepare themselves accordingly. In this way better career choices will be made and school leavers will be suitably prepared for higher education or the jobs market. Unfortunately, many young people, having left their education behind, find out too late that they were unprepared and underequipped for the jobs marketplace. They result is a descent into a debilitating limbo, falling between the familiarity of education and their murky and uninformed vision of some distant employment.

The aim of Component II is to provide a safety net for this group, offering advice and guidance, but backing it up with practical help in terms of active measures targeted to meet their needs. The anticipated result being an increase in numbers employed resulting in a direct reduction in poverty in remote and often neglected areas.