Understanding Barriers to challenges faced by youth to access skills_1_Final

This synthesis is based on two national studies concerning youth transitions to work and the labour
market, within the framework of the project Understanding Barriers to Accessing Skills Development
and Employment for Youth in Argentina and South Africa. The studies analysed three main issues: (1)
the quality of the productive activities that youngster get, such as jobs, employment, volunteering,
and learnerships; (2) policies regarding work preparation and deployment, including the conceptual
approaches, guidelines and designs of implementation, their similarities, and contradictions; and (3) youth
opportunities in the construction and wine production sectors. Emphasis was placed on knowledge of
the relationships between the various actors within society, state, non-state, public and private national
and international institutions. The report presents the theoretical and methodological framework
shared by both studies and then presents the two cases. In each of them: a) the context of each country
is described in order to highlight the social, educational and labour backgrounds; b) youth employment at
the national level and in specific sectors of the economy is analysed from a quantitative perspective; c)
the policies addressing skills development and work in the national public governance system as well as
in international development cooperation are identified and classified; and d) the Construction and Wine
Production sectors are analysed and the strategies of implementation and performance developed by
institutions and programmes that support the above policies are discussed. The study makes a crucial
contribution to the national and international literature on skills and youth development by adopting a
South–South–North perspective.