Context: Timor-Leste has one of the youngest populations in the Asia-Pacific region. The median age is 17.4 years old, and the fertility rate is very high compared to most other countries in the region. According to the 2009–2010 Timor-Leste Demographic and Health Survey, the rate was 5.7. The population below age 35 accounts for 74 per cent of the total population. This contributes to a youth bulge and a significant potential force for social and economic change.
The government realizes the importance of unlocking the potential of youth, so it has announced that youth are the hope of the future. According to the recent UNDP Human Development Report youth well-being survey carried out in Timor-Leste, around 60 per cent of respondents aspire to undertake further studies or training. Nevertheless, only about a third of this group reported that they had received any training. With training being very important for young people’s future career, there is a need to improve the quality of training and enhance the transition from school to work. In this context, the Youth Employment Promotion Program (YEP Program) was implemented by the ILO with support of the government to provide job counselling and skills training to Timorese youth looking for work and work experience. While the YEP Program has ended, it still offers useful lessons for current and future initiatives.
Implementation of programme/ initiative: The Programme was the result of corporation between ILO, AusAid, and the Government of Timor-Leste, using World Bank expertise and tools. It was designed to assist the Secretary of State for Vocational Training and Employment (SEFOPE) in the preparation and implementation of tools and programmes in the areas of training, entrepreneurship development and labour-intensive work to facilitate the productive access of young women and men to the labour market. Besides providing trainings through cooperation with organizations, the YEP Program also built Youth Career Centres for young people.
The Programme targeted 13 districts, especially in poor areas. It provided short-term employment opportunities (up to 4 months) at low wages for unskilled and semi-skilled workers in all the districts. The YEP Program also provided training for Timorese youth in life skills; civic education; water, sanitation and hygiene related behaviour change; conflict resolution; business skills; gender awareness; and sexual and reproductive health. These trainings gave youth the opportunity to gain valuable skills.
The Programme lasted from 2008 to 2012, mainly focusing on youth between the ages of 15 and 29. To enhance the school-to-work transition and give more chances for students to find employment, the YEP Program worked on the following:
- Inputs to policies on youth employment consistent with the National Employment Strategy, and developed and adopted by the Timor-Leste Government;
- Employment and suitable training opportunities for young women and men provided by established Employment Centres and Youth Career Centres, in collaboration with partner organizations;
- A safety net created for most deprived rural poor through the organization of Labour-Intensive Public Works in critical periods and geographical areas;
- A competency-based and operational education and training system, providing Timorese youth with relevant skills in accordance with the labour market requirements.
The funding for the YEP program covering its five-year implementation period was over US$16.45 million and came from ILO and AusAid.
Main challenges: The major challenge of this Program was that, of the 24,494 youth registered by employment centres supported by the Program, only 4.7 per cent were successfully linked to employment opportunities. This assessment was conducted before the emergence of a fully functioning formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in Timor-Leste and thus did not fully reflect the value of vocational education for employment and the impact in years to come.
The YEP Program built strong partnerships within the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) system in order to address the lack of initial success. In the TVET subsector, the YEP Program went on to make a major contribution to establishing the national TVET framework. The YEP Program supported the national qualification framework (approved in 2011). Through this people could get TVET training online, even in rural areas. A report at the end of 2014 demonstrated, for example, much more promising results: 46 per cent of technical training graduates were found to have obtained jobs following graduation.
Results achieved: From 2008 to 2012, the YEP Program continued to carry out its work in all 13 districts of Timor-Leste and had already assisted over 50,000 young women and men in the 15-29 age group. Although it often took time, many of these young people went on to start their own business, for example, opening a hair salon.
Major achievements of the YEP Program included the development of the National Youth Employment Plan, the National Employment Strategy and the National TVET Plan. The Timor-Leste Qualifications Framework was also established and approved by the Government. A mid-term evaluation of the YEP Program was conducted in 2010. The findings suggested that the Program had made significant contribution to help the Government of Timor-Leste to develop and operationalize a skills and training system in the country.
The Program also contributed to Timor-Leste’s first Career Expo, held in Dili in February 2011. More than 5,000 students attended the event, which showcased local employers (Government and private enterprise), training providers and educational institutions promoting career pathways and available opportunities for further study.
The Program further supported the completion of the 2010 Timor-Leste Labour Force Survey (LFS) in collaboration with the National Statistics Directorate and the Labour Market Information Department of SEFOPE.
Moving Forward: Although this Program ended in 2012, the influence has been strong. It encouraged people to open their own business and taught people how to find suitable jobs and develop appropriate skills. Also, the TVET element of the Program focused on providing a flexible, modularized, demand-driven, and province-based programme that enabled students to train close to home and undertake study, while developing useful skills.
Considering the success of the YEP Program, Australia and ILO announced a new program of training support in Timor-Leste called The Training and Employment Support Program (TESP). It was a $12.2m, two-year program from 2013 to 2014 that focused on providing Timorese with the skills needed to find jobs. The target group of this programme were workers and job seekers especially young new entrants to the labour market who would get access to high quality and market-driven training, certification and employment services.
Furthermore, with the help of the YEP Program, a National framework of TVET was established in 2012. A long-term Technical and Vocational Education Plan (TVET 2011-2030) was also formulated in 2012. The TVET Plan aims to support the needs of a modern economy with a highly diverse and skilled labour force. These provide a set of milestones for further developing the TVET sector in the country.
Replicability: Lessons learned from the YEP Program show that the most effective way of transferring skills and knowledge is through an environment where both face-to-face and online training can flourish; this can be enhanced through positive influences on policies and programmes. With the strong help of the online learning system and trainings supported by the government, youth employment skills were effectively promoted in Timor-Leste. Other countries can also try replicate this learning method which needs collaboration between many stakeholders and looking at steady gains beyond just those of the short term.
References:
https://www.ilo.org/asia/WCMS_159348/lang–en/index.htm
https://timordata.info/media/publications/ILO_2009_Youth_employment_in_Timor-Leste.pdf
http://hdr.undp.org/en/content/national-human-development-report-2018-timor-leste
https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/linked-documents/45139-001-tim-dc.pdf
Acknowledgements:
This good practice was kindly prepared by Ms. Xibai Ren
Project Details
Date: November 13, 2018