Contribution to the Promoting Youth Employability in Thailand

The ILO has a long-standing commitment to promote decent work for youth. Supported by a unique tripartite structure, ILO’s activities on youth employment span over advocacy, knowledge development and dissemination, policy and technical advice and capacity building services. The comparative advantage of ILO’s work on youth employment lies in its proven ability to influence policy change by reaching out and involving different stakeholders – including youth representatives – through extended social dialogue, participatory practices and delivering technical assistance. The economic trends and demographic shift towards an ageing society in Thailand emphasize the importance of decent and productive employment for youth for current and future labour productivity growth in a rapidly changing world of work. The youth unemployment rate (aged 15 24) has been on the rise since 2010, despite a low overall unemployment rate in Thailand prior to the outbreak of COVID-19. Recent research points to the critical role of youth employability in Thailand for the transition from school to work. Despite improved educational accessibility for youth, a mismatch remains between skills and labour demand, and the challenge encountered by the school-based career guidance system to provide students with individualized support, soft skills, appropriate career advice, including on starting a business. The ILO in Thailand has been working closely with the UNICEF on various socio-economic issues including in the area of youth employment. In this regard, the UNICEF supports the delivering of the ILO’s Young Futuremakers Thailand project on Promoting Youth Employabilities. The project focuses on support to disadvantaged young women and young persons with disabilities in the greater Bangkok metropolitan area and provinces in the central region of Thailand, with a preliminary focus on the following provinces: Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, and Samut Prakan. Among young persons with disabilities, the project has a particular focus on supporting young persons with visual impairments. Anchored in the Global Initiative on Decent Jobs for Youth, the project takes a comprehensive demand-, supply- and intermediation approach to support disadvantaged young women and young persons with disabilities, in particular young persons with visual impairments, through demand-led technical skills, employability training, career guidance and placement. In preparing for the future of work, the project also addresses gender, technological and environmental aspects in the content and delivery of activities. The support from the UNICEF enhances coordination between the ILO and the UNICEF in the delivery of the joint workplan to promote youth employability in Thailand.

Project symbol

THA/20/02/CEF

Admin unit

CO-Bangkok

Start date

15/11/2020

End date

31/12/2021

Total allocation

24968

Total expenditure

Status

Closed

24846

Development Partners

United Nations Children's Fund

Country/Countries

Thailand

Outcomes

Outcome 3: Economic, social and environmental transitions for full, productive and freely chosen employment and decent work for all