Promoting decent work for older out-of-school children in or at risk of child labour

Participants from Fiji, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Vanuatu have gained a better understanding of the key issues that require attention in the planning and delivery of skills and livelihoods training programmes to older out of school children in or at risk of child labour.

The ILO Office for Pacific Island Countries in conjunction with the International Training Centre for the ILO (ITC-ILO) conducted a Sub-Regional Skills and Livelihood Training for Older Out-Of-School Children in Child Labour or At Risk in the Pacific from the 27th to 31st July, 2015 in Nadi Fiji.

Technical training on the development of appropriate training and livelihoods programmes for older children in child labour is crucial as many Pacific Island Countries are faced with issues of out of school children and youth unemployment.

Giselle Mitton, ILO-ITC Activity Manager, said “an important component of the training was to emphasize the sharing of relevant experiences from the Pacific region on the issue of skills for older out of school youth in child labour or at risk.”

“The country presentations very clearly indicated the existence of programs and institutions engaged in skills development for the youth target group. The training highlighted entry points in existing programs where skills development as a means of protecting at risk children under 18 years of age from child labour can be mainstreamed. During the regional review conducted on the last day of the training the Countries were also able to identify areas of their current programming that could be improved.” Giselle said.

In the Pacific, education systems have mostly focused on white-collar employment skills, stagnating economies with a lack of employment opportunities, and rural/urban inequalities are still the most significant underlying causes of youth problems.

Marie Fatiaki, ILO TACKLE Programme co-ordinator, said “At the end of the training, countries recommended technical support for entrepreneurship training, opportunities for formal certification as (Start your Business) SYB trainers, training for youth on core work skills and careers, conducting skills gap analysis and child labour research surveys. “

168 million children worldwide remain trapped in child labour while at the same time there are 75 million young persons aged 15 to 24 years who are unemployed and many more who must settle for jobs that fail to offer a fair income, security in the workplace, social protection or other basic decent work attributes. The ILO’s World Report on Child Labour: Paving the Way to Decent Work for Young People, launched in June 2015, makes clear the need for accelerated global action targeting child labour and the lack of decent work opportunities for youth.

The sub-regional training was an initiative of the Tackling Child Labour through Education Project (TACKLE) funded by the European Union, to provide a regional resource and knowledge sharing platform for the Pacific on child labour, trafficking and related issues. It provided further opportunity for participants to share strategies, lessons learnt, challenges and innovative approaches to addressing the issues and links between child labour and youth employment.