Employment for Empowerment: Youth in ICTs Program

In 2019, national unemployment stood at 10.5 percent according to the National Administrative Department of Statistics (DANE) in Colombia. For the youth population, it reached 18.9 percent, which shows that those most affected by unemployment are young people between the ages of 14 and 28. Young people have the greatest barriers when entering the labor market, specifically due to their gaps in skills and abilities against the needs of the productive sector.

On the other hand, according to the National Ministry of Information Technology and Communications (MinTIC), 2,000 software development companies generated a profit of approximately USD$1 billion in 2011. By the end of 2020, Colombia had a shortage of 100,000 of job positions in technology, resulting in a higher demand for new technological skills, employability skills, and new roles.

In August 2019, ACDI/VOCA and Citi Foundation partnered to implement the program Employment for Empowerment: Youth in ICTs in Medellín and Bogotá until August 2021. In November 2020, a second phase project was initiated to include Barranquilla, Cali, and Cartagena, which lasted until April 2022. In order to continue to broaden the impact of the program, the alliance began implementing a third phase project, beginning in November 2022 and lasting through June 2024, which generated economic inclusion opportunities for youth in vulnerable conditions, prioritizing ethnic Afro-descendant or indigenous youths, through the strengthening of technical labor competencies, socioemotional skills, and labor intermediation strategies that enable them to secure formal employment in the cities of Cali and Buenaventura.

Project Objectives

The overall objective of the program is to provide workforce development training in ICT areas and generate economic opportunities for at-risk youth in Barranquilla, Bogotá, Cali, Cartagena and Medellín.

Project Activities and Approaches

Outreach activities and selection processes to choose project participants (at-risk youth from diverse groups between the ages of 18 and 29).
Identification and assessment of qualifications required for the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, in articulation with companies of prioritized sectors.
Tailored technical and employability skills training on market-demanded sectors, as well as psychosocial support for project participants and follow-up at the workplace.
Articulation with partner organizations at the national and local levels to contribute to the decrease in youth unemployment rates in intervention cities.
Strategic partnerships with companies interested in implementing diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
Transfer of the ACDI/VOCA psychosocial methodology DecidoSer® to training centers and participants.

Project Results

During the first phase of this grant, over 265 participants from Bogota and Medellin received workforce development training and soft skills in prioritized ICT sectors and 159 participants secured internships and obtained employability skills through hands-on work experience. Additionally, 160 participants graduated with technical certifications, of which 73% were between 18-24 years old and 40% were women. During the second phase of the grant, 303 youth were trained and graduated from ICT programs in Cali, Barranquilla, and Cartagena, of which 299 did internships and260 of them gained their first employment, widely exceeding the goals set for the learning stage by 121%. During the third grant period ending in June 2024, 284 youth from Cali and Buenaventura completed the 600-hour technical training in the fields of Computer Systems, Administrative Assistance, and Port Management, with an emphasis on ICT. Of these, 190 completed the stage of paid work internships in companies where they performed duties in areas of human management, accounting, finance, logistics, health and safety at work, systems, port management, telecommunications, and others. The entire technical training and job intermediation process provided psychosocial support through the DecidoSer Program for Social Change, strengthening youth skills in teamwork, respect, resilience, tolerance for frustration, and development of life projects. At the end of the program, 99 participants obtained formal employment through indefinite work or service contracts, creating economic opportunities for the youth participants, especially vulnerable youth, including women, Afro-descendants, Indigenous people, the LGBTQI+ population, and people with disabilities.