Lifeskills and employability for youth in Ecuador

We have had a challenging year at the end of the year. Circumstances remain difficult: increased violent deaths, energy crisis (Ecuador is going through the worst drought in 61 years), economic recession and stagnant employment. Still, we persevere, for, with and as our young people.  

With the Vocational Guidance and Professional Training Program we have accompanied more than 200 young people. Our participants - in adversity - are already thinking about a life project: the young people affirm that, thanks to our program, they have discovered their predominant talents and that our activities are concrete initiatives to prepare them for the future.  

On the other hand, we already have 14 “Kitchen Assistants” and 11 “Computer and Network Maintenance and Repair Assistants”! They all completed their internships at major restaurants, dealerships or at the university and successfully passed their tests. The Mechanics graduation had to be postponed because, in September, the city was declared in a “state of emergency” due to forest fires.  

A very special moment was the Gastronomy students' final practical exam where they tested their creativity and technique by preparing a complete menu: aspects such as expense management (each team was assigned a budget), teamwork, presentation, seasoning were evaluated; and some went beyond what was planned, defending the concepts of their proposals and even using their own resources to guarantee the quality of their service. Many passionately expressed having discovered and valued ingredients/dishes from both their own and other cultures, taking the risk of fusing, replicating and versioning recipes from their masters; others stood out for taking care of every last detail. 

To date, 31% of our graduates have obtained jobs in their area of training and 16% have continued studying, but all of them will continue to receive follow-up until December to guide them and verify their labor market insertion. Nathaly (23 years old), a Gastronomy graduate, is already on the payroll of the prestigious “Casa Gangotena”: “What I take away most from this training is the personal gratification for what I have learned, for the skills that one experiences that one has and for all those from whom one learns, I have realized that the people who accompany you are the ones who, in the end, build part of the path with you. I want to thank them for teaching me so patiently. One always has to risk more, I have proven myself and now I know how far I can go. I would like to tell other young people to lose their fear, one can reach unimaginable paths that can open many doors. But you have to take the first step, you have the capacity to do it if you take the risk”. 

Links:

• Our web

Since the declaration of "internal armed conflict", Ecuador faces complex scenarios. In addition to the security crisis caused by criminal gangs, the country experienced an energy crisis with scheduled power outages of up to 8 hours per day and a plebiscite for reforms in security, justice, investment and employment. However, significant challenges remain, especially in youth employability. Despite the Economic Efficiency and Employment Generation Law, which incentivizes youth hiring, 24.1% of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are neither working nor studying, and the rate of inadequate employment reached 63%.

In this context, our initiatives are crucial in offering safe and preventive spaces for young people exposed to fear and the risk of being victimized or recruited by local gangs in neighborhoods such as Pisulí and La Roldós. During this period, we have served almost 150 young people, overcoming obstacles such as power outages or insecurity, without interrupting our services.

The Vocational Guidance Program has benefited more than 100 young participants, who in weekly workshops on Art (2 hours), Cooking and Trades explore skills and talents, trades or careers, calculate costs and profits of products; in monthly vocational workshops, for a whole day, they address real problems and learn about all the professions needed to solve them; and visit other environments such as the P&A law firm. 

One of the workshops was with chef Jerome (http://www.chezjeromerestaurante.com/): "what struck me most was to see how they empowered themselves with the recipes and proposed innovations to change them, to the point of daring to make them".The most important dimension of our initiatives is to help young people understand that vocation and work are a function of the needs of society, they must be a good for the community, for others: the vocational workshops have always addressed the real needs of a family, the community or the Youth Center; and the participants of the cooking workshop organized a hamburger sale to help one of their classmates with knee problems.

Forty (40) young people are participating in vocational schools: 15 in Gastronomy, 11 young people in Technology and 14 young people in Mechanics. In human training, skills such as the development of "Critical Thinking", "Decision Making", "Communication" and "Interpersonal Relations" have been covered. In April, technical training was minimally affected by the power outages, but the young people have been very motivated to attend classes at sites (Universidad de Los Hemisferios, Universidad de Las Américas and Instituto Tecnoecuatoriano) that they would otherwise not have known.The Gastronomy and Mechanics students have already started their pre-professional internships, and soon the Technology students will start theirs.

With your support, we can continue "illuminating" the path of so many young people towards a better future, even in times of adversity and darkness.

Links:

• www.fundacionsembrar.ec
• Our instagram
• our facebook