By Sam Rith

TOKYO, Oct 13 (TerraViva) – Vocational training, knowledge of international languages like English and information and communication technologies (ICTs) are the major factors that young people need to get jobs, development experts here said.

The discussion called ‘Avoiding A Lost Generation: The Challenges and Opportunities for Expanding Youth Employment’, held at the IMF-WB annual meetings here Thursday, focused on worries that the economic slowdown was leading to a shortage of jobs for young people entering the workforce around the world. This has been a key theme at the Tokyo meetings.

Dr Mohammad Shtayyeh, minister of the Palestinian Economic Council, suggested that each country establish “various vocational training programmes” for young people.

Heikki Holmas, Norway’s minister of international development, agreed, saying that young people have better chances to get proper jobs and better wages if they have skills that the market looks for.

They are also better off with knowledge of international languages like English and familiarity with ICTs, added Tjipke Bergsma, deputy CEO of Plan International in Britain.

He estimated that within the next 10 years, there will be one billion youth who would get employed around the world.

At the same, the speakers agreed that there remained barriers to the job market in many countries, including corruption, which undercut fair chances by the educated and skilled people to get quality jobs.

For example, Holmas said, there are cases where educated or skilled youth may not get jobs, while the uneducated or unskilled youth landed them because they know or have connections with people working at the hiring company or organisation.