Youth labour market integration: the case for quality apprenticeships in the Caribbean

The labour market integration of young people in the Caribbean, and their transition from education to the world of work, is one of the main structural challenges facing the countries of the region in terms of their labour markets.

It is also a serious obstacle to the social integration and full citizenship of huge contingents of young people, as well as a risk to social cohesion and a hinder to the development of societies that offer work and income-generating opportunities to all their members. This has been exacerbated as a result of the economic and social effects of the COVID pandemic.

In such a context, the countries of the region continue to search for alternatives and innovations in their skills development and technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems to provide solutions to this difficult reality. One of the tools that has gained renewed vigour in recent years, and in which there is growing interest on the part of governments and social partners in the Caribbean, is quality apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships can be understood as “any form of education and training that is governed by an apprenticeship agreement and enables an apprentice to acquire the competencies required to work in an occupation through structured and remunerated or otherwise financially compensated training consisting of both on-the-job and off-the-job learning that leads to a recognized qualification”1.

Indeed, in view of the results that this training modality has demonstrated over the years in the education-work transition of young people, in their insertion in formal and quality jobs, as well as the benefits reported for the enterprises involved, quality apprenticeships are currently the subject of much study, debate and, most importantly, the development of experiences by various TVET and educational institutions, in Latin America and the Caribbean as well as at a global level.

The global youth employment crisis and the commitment of countries in all regions of the world to this training modality, has led the ILO to decide to launch a process aimed at the adoption of a new International Labour Standard, as a result of the general discussions that will take place at the International Labour Conferences in 2022 and 2023.

In the region, the ILO Office for the Caribbean, together with ILO/Cinterfor (Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training), have participated in the promotion and advocacy of this training modality through capacity-building initiatives for representatives of TVET institutions and of social partners to design and implement quality apprenticeships programmes and policies2.

This pioneering virtual course on quality apprenticeships took place in the first semester of 2022 and is one among other technical assistance measures that the ILO implements in order to support countries in the Caribbean to tackle the enormous challenge of the school to work transition and labour market integration of young people.
1. ILO, International Labour Conference – 110th Session, 2022. Reports of the Standard-Setting Committee: Apprenticeships. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_848121.pdf

2. More information regarding this capacity-building course can be found here.