SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

BOX 3.10:
Germany’s vocational training system: a model for Asia-Pacific?
Germany’s vocational training programmes are
recognized worldwide as highly effective. Around
two-thirds of high school graduates choose to
enter vocational training, an appealing career path
for more than 350 occupations. Students have apprenticeships
in companies and take classes once
or twice a week that complement work experience
with theoretical training. Oral, written and practical
exams are based on material taught at school as
well as on-the-job learning.
Much of the success of the programme is due to
meeting multiple needs—among students, businesses
and the Government. Students obtain a
well-recognized and readily marketable professional
certification. A basic monthly stipend of about
680 euros allows them to become independent
at an earlier age than in many countries. In 2013,
about 450,000 trainee positions were available,
and nearly all of them were filled, demonstrating
keen demand.
For businesses, the vocational programme helps
identify candidates and employ them at a lower
cost. Companies save on training new employees,
searching for candidates and advertising for posts.
On its side, the Government has been able to meet
targets to keep youth unemployment low—it has
been beneath rates in all other European countries
for decades. This has motivated many European
countries, as well as some in Asia-Pacific,
such as China, India and Viet Nam, to adapt the
German model.
Sources: Young Germany 2013, German Missions in the United States 2016.
112
Removing obstacles
to doing business
can help create jobs
for youth
people in remote areas. Protecting the security
and welfare of young rural migrants and lowskilled
female migrants, as among the most
socially and economically vulnerable groups, will
enhance their well-being and the potential contributions
of migration to human development.
Well-managed and implemented social protection
programmes should be structured to cover
all people across the life cycle, including young
workers, and ensure that no one falls through
a minimum ‘floor’ of income and well-being.
Extend support to youth entrepreneurship.
Young people are creative, enterprising and not
afraid to take risks. They bring unique ideas to
businesses and markets. Young entrepreneurs
often are more aware of and responsive to new
market trends, have more faith in other youth
and tend to employ younger workers. In the last
few years, the number of young entrepreneurs
and venture capitalists has increased. An important
reason for this trend is that high economic
growth rates in China and India have encouraged
more Western-trained youth to return home to
start their own companies.
Removing obstacles to doing business is an
important way to create jobs for youth, especially
if coupled with sound management training, advice
and mentoring, access to credit and markets,
and labour market reforms. Entrepreneurship
development programmes are effective in developing
the capacity of youth to start their own
businesses, since many have limited knowledge
and experience of the processes involved.
Across the region, there has been little
emphasis on entrepreneurship development,
although Japan offers interesting examples of
entrepreneurship education in schools. Its Youth
Independence Challenge Plan requires entrepreneurial
education that is both participatory
and experiential in elementary, junior high and
senior high schools, and its Dream Gate service
raises awareness among youth about entrepreneurship.
102 In some cases, programmes to cultivate
entrepreneurial skills could facilitate the
transition from self-employment in the informal
economy to microenterprise development in the
formal economy (Box 3.11).
Improve access to finance. A key barrier to
business entry for youth is the lack of financing.
Prospects for finding capital for start-ups
can be constrained by their brief credit history
and limited collateral. Other obstacles include
legal and administrative hurdles, red tape, and
favouritism that only allows a handful of youth
with political connections to thrive in the market,
a major loss in terms of the larger youth talent