The ILO, with the collaboration of MTV, awarded companies that implemented good practices regarding youth employment. 103 businesses from 57 countries entered the contest; however, the committee of experts chose three of them.
Each one of the winning practices provided innovative solutions that helped disadvantaged young people to improve their self-esteem, acquire skills that enhanced their employability and helped them get a foothold in the labour market.
In the Netherlands, the winning project encouraged disadvantaged young people to reorganise their lives after leaving their studies or jobs. A tutor who had gone through a similar experience helped the young people to find new challenges that would enable them to redirect their efforts and reconnect with what they had abandoned.
The Dutch project, 2GetThere, is for young people aged 16 to 27 living on the margins of society. They learn how to become their own solution. They overcome their unemployment situation with their personal strengths. In this way, the programme helps them to become self-sufficient.
Another of the prizes went to an entity from Bangladesh. The key targets of it project, From Exclusion to Integration, are young people with some type of disability. The programme offers a combination of vocational training and temporary wage subsidies, or advice on how to open a business and funding to set it up. It is mainly based in Dhaka and seeks to save 700 disabled people from extreme poverty and make them into active citizens.
The project from Paraguay helps low-income young people from rural environments to acquire technical skills and learn innovative business practices. The Fundación Paraguaya, with its Self-sufficient Agricultural School programme, helps young people who want to become farming entrepreneurs by providing them with training requiring the payment of a symbolic fee.
http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tiUcPqrVLA