"Young people without prospects are at greater risk of being attracted into socially and personally destructive behaviour and can be vulnerable to involvement in illegal activities, drug abuse or economically dependent relationships," he says.

And, young people are more susceptible than most when it comes to the risk of unemployment: they are two to three times more likely to be jobless as adults in most countries.

While part of the reason for this is that many have only just left school, Steven Miller, secretary of the Youth Employment Network (Yen), a joint initiative of the World Bank, the United Nations and the ILO, believes this is the point in their lives when they require most help.

"There needs to be a focus on that very critical school-to-work transition and to focus activities on smoothing that transition," says Mr Miller. "Because that is where young people are vulnerable and can get caught in a trap of long-term unemployment that can be more severe."

Given the figures, the challenges of finding work for these people look daunting. About 1bn people will reach working age within the next decade. The ILO estimates about 74m young people are jobless worldwide, accounting for 41 per cent of the world's 180m unemployed.

Whether in rich or poor countries, the biggest obstacle for these people lies in gaining the experience needed to enter the job market - a Catch 22 situation whereby they are unable to find work because they lack experience . . . and yet the only way of gaining that experience is through working.

However, developing countries, with their informal economies, have something of an advantage here. For while they lack the legal and institutional infrastructure that supports working people in industrialised nations, their family-based businesses, small enterprises and traditional apprenticeship schemes provide opportunities for young people to gain work experience.

"There are a lot of programmes within the ILO that are trying to upgrade the quality of this training, but working on the basis of what already exists on the ground," says Mr Miller.

Industrialised nations, by contrast, need to institutionalise this kind of training. Mr Miller points out that Germany, unlike many of its neighbours, has achieved a youth and adult unemployment rate that are almost the same, largely because of schemes whereby employers are mandated to hire young people on employment-training contracts, giving them experience as soon as they leave school.

But too often, says Maria Livanos Cattaui, secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce and a member of a high-level Yen panel, rich countries fail to provide the right form of instruction. "Some industrialised countries continue to breed in their educational establishments people with wonderful academic qualifications but with not much practical knowledge," she says.

In some areas, the market can provide the spark for the right kind of training. In many Latin American and Caribbean countries, for example, a growing demand for skilled information and communications technology workers has been the catalyst for the creation of skills-based IT training.

The International Youth Foundation and the Multilateral Investment Fund of the Inter-American Development Bank have joined forces to create a $25m programme called "entra 21", a four-year scheme that aims to support local projects that train young people and help them to find jobs requiring IT skills.

Eliana Vera, director for Latin America at the International Youth Foundation, points out that the programme is not only focused on IT.

"We are not concentrating solely on the technical aspects of the training," she says. "We are talking about youth at an age when they are not career oriented. What they need is the life skills that help them navigate the world of work."

However, some argue that regardless of the quantity and quality of training available, there will never be enough work for young people until they themselves start to create jobs through entrepreneurial ventures.

Mrs Cattaui stresses the need to remove the barriers that prevent them from establishing successful start-up businesses - obstacles such as overly burdensome bureaucracy, corruption and the protective attitudes of established businesses.

She cites the US as a successful example of an open approach to entrepreneurship. "America is an engine of creating jobs because barriers are low - finance is available, risk taking is rewarded, intellectual property is respected and bankruptcy laws are favourable," she says.

Indeed, entrepreneurship is one of four guiding principles of the Yen panel; employability, equal opportunities and employment creation being the others. But whichever of these four principles leads to the greatest job creation, institutions such as the World Bank, the ILO and the UN are focusing on youth employment as a key element in improving the outlook for both developing and industrialised countries.

"Without significantly expanding youth employment, the overall international development agenda will fail to eradicate poverty, build a healthy middle class and bring security and stability to families and communities," says Mr Somavia.