• During Phase I (2001-2007), more than 19,600 youth benefited from comprehensive training and job placement services. Job placement rates averaged 54% across 35 projects, with the number of youth who re-enrolled in formal education nearly doubling. A majority of employers surveyed rated the graduates they hired as having better than average competencies in a variety of areas.
•  As of March 2011, over 60,000 disadvantaged youth had enrolled in the program in 18 countries; of those 88% completed their training cycle which includes classroom instructions and an internship.  Follow up studies of the 24 projects supported under Phase II are underway; three of these include control groups.   In addition, studies dealing with achieving scale, reaching harder to hire youth, and using technology will be published in July 2011.

Contact:
Susan Pezzullo, Program Director for Latin America and the Caribbean
Email: s.pezzullo@iyfnet.org