Whilst youth unemployment has largely faded from the media’s view in Europe, elsewhere in the world it remains a huge challenge. Globally, over 70 million young people out of work. Africa and the Middle East suffer some of the highest jobless rates with up to one in three young people unemployed. Colleagues in our Berlin Spandau office were delighted to host a delegation of 11 countries from these regions to share experience and best practice around tackling unemployment and poverty among disadvantaged groups.
The study visit was part of the “YouMatch” initiative, a global programme sponsored by the German international development agency (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit - GiZ), to develop innovative employability solutions to help young people in emerging economies, especially young women, find sustainable work.
Operations Manager, Alexandra Wiemers, led the Ingeus presentation which included coaching techniques - like competency transfers that have the potential to be transferred to other countries with less developed infrastructure. Alexandra said “the Spandau team rally enjoys welcoming international study visits because it allows us to reflect positively on our own work and it gives us an opportunity to give something back”.
Anton Eckersley, Director for Global Business Development, noted that Ingeus Germany has built a deserved international reputation for developing innovative employability services both for young people and for economic and humanitarian migrants – many of them from the Middle East. “At the moment, governments in many emerging economies struggle to build effective employability services for their citizens. Our colleagues in Berlin Spandau and elsewhere in Germany have been providing inspiration and practical support to make a real difference to people’s futures in parts of the world where life chances are more limited. Well done!”.