There is an emerging body of academic literature on youth employment, but little practical guidelines for those who do the heavy lifting and actually manage these programmes.

Last year I was so lucky to manage a small research project for Plan International with the exact aim to fill this gap. Our objective was to identify some of the critical factors for youth employment programmes to be successful. A very ambitious task, indeed.

We did field research looking at support programmes targeted at young people in Brazil, Colombia and El Salvador. Youth were trained and through apprenticeships, funding and alliances with the private sector connected to the labour market (both self-employment and wage employment).

The document is written for staff on the ground to inform policy makers and donors about what they are doing and the lessons they have learned. It also serves as a reference for practitioners who are new to the area of youth employment. For this reason it is not just available in English but also in Portuguese and Spanish.

The report can be downloaded here.