Youth Employment Promotion (YEP) project launch event held

The ILO launches a new youth employment project (YEP) that aims to tackle the significant employment challenges faced by young people in Mongolia. Mongolia faces a persistent shortage of skilled labour, despite high youth unemployment rates. The project aims to address the mismatch between skills obtained through technical vocational education and training (TVET) and employer expectations, and the gap between the cultural and generational norms and expectations of employers and young workers in the workplace.

The project will be implemented in the cashmere sector and the hospitality sector for 30 months. The YEP project will conduct a comparative case study and action research in the cashmere sector to address these employment challenges faced by young workers. In addition to that, the project will pilot the ILO SCORE Programme in selected enterprises and will aim to improve workplace management, ultimately contributing to the continuous growth of formal employment opportunities.

“Through the YEP project, we will work in two critical areas. One is to improve policies and the institutional support system at the national level for more and better jobs for youth, which will involve extensive policy consultation as well as labour market diagnosis. Another is to support managers and workers in the target industry of cashmere at sectoral and enterprise levels in improving productivity, bringing incremental workplace innovation, improving productivity, improving workplace labour-management relations, and improving working conditions.” said Changhee Lee, Director of the ILO Country Office for China and Mongolia.

“In Mongolia by 2035, it is projected that youth born after 2000 will make up 43 percent of the total workforce. The new millennium youth prefer flexible working conditions that allow them to work anytime and anywhere and prioritize a work-life balance. They tend to choose jobs that offer independence and flexibility. This creates a cultural and generational disconnect between employers and young workers. Therefore, we hope that the YEP project will address these challenges through workplace cooperation and innovation.” said Munkhzul Lkhagva, State Secretary of the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Protection.

In total, 50 participants from the Ministry of Family, Labour and Social Protection, Ministry of Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Youth, Korea Labor and Employment Service, Confederation of Mongolian Trade Union, Mongolian Employers Federation, Mongolian National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mongolian Wool and Cashmere Association, Mongolian Industrial Trade Union Federation, Mongolian-Korean Polytechnic college, international organizations, UNYAP, and enterprises participated the launch event.

“The ILO/Korea partnership programme has launched its first project in Mongolia that aims to support the creation of quality jobs for Mongolian youth and improve the workplace in the cashmere industry. This project will be implemented in collaboration with the Korea Labor and Employment Service (KLES), which is the only organization in Korea similar to the ILO and which was established by tripartite agreement.” said Hochul Shin, Chief Technical Adviser of the ILO/Korea Partnership Programme.

Furthermore, the YEP project seeks to create long-term sustainable improvements in productivity through capacity-building efforts and Korean workplace innovation practices. The project will develop and implement key policy initiatives to motivate young workers and enhance workplace management, ultimately contributing to the continuous growth of formal employment opportunities.

For more information, please contact:

Javzandulam Myagmar, National Project Coordinator, [email protected]