CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

This study Understanding Barriers to Accessing Skills Development and Employment for Youth in Argentina and South Africa is a product of two years of work across three continents (Europe, Latin America and Africa) between three institutions: Norrag in Switzerland ; the REAL Centre at Wits University and PREJET programme at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social (IDES). The study brings together interdisciplinary research perspectives to study a critical challenge to both developing and developing countries in the world today which is the rising youth unemployment resulting in large numbers of young people being unable to access employment or skills development. South Africa and Argentina provide a varied context to studying barriers to youth employment and skills since both countries are faced with challenges of pursuing social justice within difficult economic conditions. This study is organized around the notions of People-Policy and Institutions in order to describe the interconnection between the effect on people , state policy and institutions in understanding barriers to youth employment and skills development. Increasingly the problem of youth unemployment has tended to be treated as an individual problem by illustrating the skills deficits of young people rather than taking into account the critical role of public policy and institutions that intermediate access to skills training and employment for the youth. The study is grounded in two sectors ie. Wine and Construction sectors which present a useful context for understanding the barriers to youth employment and skills development by taking into account the structural context of the two sectors in Argentina and South Africa. These two sectors demonstrate similarities in regulation but simultaneously also show differences in areas such as the role of trade unions in the accessing of skills development. The study makes a contribution to the growing body of work on researching youth unemployment and access to skills development in both the academic and policy development literature.