Committed Youth - I Make The Difference
1. PROGRAM CONTEXT The USAID/El Salvador Improving Access to Employment Program is a 4-year, $7.6 million program, initiated in December 2009 and concluding in November 2013. It is being implemented by CARANA Corporation with RTI International. Its overall objective is to improve the functioning of the labor market to allow more Salvadorans to find employment The USAID Improving Access to Employment Program is a key component of the joint United States Government (USG)-Government of El Salvador (GOES) Partnership for Growth (PfG). It is tasked, as part of the PfG Objective 3, with improving the quality of human capital. The Program is using a multi-faceted and integrated approach toward improving access to employment. The core components of the Program are: 1. Create Alliances with the Private Sector. The core operating principle underlying the Program is linking the educational system with the needs of the business community. The principal operational mechanism the Program has piloted and proven in El Salvador is building alliances with the private sector. By means of these alliances, businesses identify and share their occupational competency requirements and job candidate profiles with educational institutions, and co-invest in crafting and offering pre-training and training programs to prepare the target groups listed above to get jobs. 2. Promote Occupational Skills Standards and Competency Certification. In close conjunction with employers, the Program has identified gaps in occupational skills and competencies, and has developed more than 50 competency-based training and certification programs to close the gaps in a sustainable manner. 3. Expand Consumer-Based Employment Reporting and Career Counseling/ Placement Services. True to its name, the Program has supported new pathways to employment by using technology to disseminate information on how to be successful in preparing for employment, and significantly strengthening career counseling and job placement skills and processes throughout the public and private sector that make up the workforce development ecosystem. 4. Improve Labor Market Information System. With the goal of transforming the workforce development ecosystem into a dynamic web of connected stakeholders providing youth, women, persons with disabilities, the unemployed, and workers with the information they need, when and where they need it, the Program is improving labor market information collection and dissemination through technology and vocational counseling. 5. Build Local Capacity. The Program is assisting key 1