Youth employment in the Pacific

Youth unemployment and underemployment are major labour issues in the Pacific Islands today. Key youth employment challenges in the Pacific includes: the general lack of economic growth, weak tertiary education systems, skill mismatch, lack of labour market information and job placement services, constraints on self employment and entrepreneurship and lack of representation of voice of young workers.

A newly launched ILO Project is the: “Sub Regional Programme on Education, Employability and Decent Work for Youth in Pacific Island Countries”, which covers 5 countries in the Pacific namely: Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

Under this project, a number of workshops have been organized with participants from the Pacific region. The participants are from various trade unions and youth leaders active in the labour movements in their respective countries.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) recognizes the urgent need to address these issues and will be conducting a Pacific Trade Union Training Courses on Decent Work for Youth in the Pacific for the duration of the project.

Various workshops aim to strengthen the technical capabilities of the Pacific Countries’ trade unions to promote better opportunities for young men and women to obtain productive work in conditions of freedom, equity, security and human dignity.

The Training will provide an opportunity for the trade unions to learn about:

1. ILO’s policies and programmes for Decent Work for young people;

2. International Labour Standards and the Fundamental Rights of Workers;

3. ILO’s Global Employment Agenda;

4. Trade union policies on employment promotion and youth organising;

5. Social protection policies for migrant workers; and

6. Share experiences on the role of trade unions in promoting “Decent Work” for youth and migrant workers.

According to the UN Resident Coordinator in Samoa Ms Naheed Haque “Productive and decent work enables young people to realise their aspirations, improve their living conditions and actively participate in society.”