In Ecuador, as a follow-up to the approval of a youth employment strategy that was supported by the ILO, the government, and particularly the Ministry of Labour, requested support from the ILO to improve labour market intermediation and other services provided by the network of labour offices (Red Socio Empleo).

The project’s objective was to strengthen the capacity of the network of labour offices of the Public Employment Service (PES) in the provision of services and programmes to “hard to reach” young people. More specifically, the project aims to support the PES in the implementation of the measures of the youth employment strategy that target disadvantaged youth. This will be done through the implementation of outreach strategies for groups of young people who fall outside the reach of the PES (e.g. school dropouts, youth with disabilities) or live in areas (mostly rural) that are not served by the network of labour offices.

The support includes advisory services and PES staff training to strengthen institutional capacity to implement the youth employment strategy, particularly in respect of the design and implementation of integrated packages of services (e.g. vocational guidance and job placement) and programmes (e.g. second chance and labour market training) that target disadvantaged and socially-excluded youth (e.g. school dropouts and youth with disabilities).

In addition the project has aimed to reinforce social dialogue in Ecuador. This includes building capacities among ILO constituents, particularly employers' organizations and trade unions on youth Employment issues.