Clementine Turgeon, LP4Y Booster Ecosystem, Philippines
Faced with the global pandemic of Covid19, the year 2020 was indeed challenging for LP4Y but, in hindsight, it also encouraged us to be innovative and agile to find solutions to keep accompanying the Youth towards their professional inclusion. We are also thankful to count around us partners who, despite the economy dwindling down, didn’t wither in their support for our actions.
From July to September 2020, 50 of them across Asia responded to a survey we sent to all of our corporate partners. We wanted to understand how companies managed their HR strategies during and after the crisis in order to support the professional integration of the Youth. The aim was to have an answer to this question:
What are the professional prospects for the excluded Youth in Asia?
The answers collected were surprisingly positive and hopeful for the future integration of excluded young adults. Even though 70% of the respondents had to freeze recruitment altogether starting March 2020, 64.8% of them declared that when hiring again they would be primarily looking for people with soft skills such as growth mindset, willingness to learn, smartness, communication skills, behavioral skills and positive attitude. When asked if they would be willing to hire young adults with no formal education but with these sought-after skills, 72.2% of the companies responded positively.
This is excellent news for the Youth of LP4Y which pedagogy is focused on developing soft skills that are essential in the workplace.
Most of the respondents were willing to turn these HR convictions into actions for the Youth. Indeed, in order for these Youth to gain the necessary soft and hard skills, 77.7% of the respondents were ready to implement an internship program in their company to boost the recruitment of excluded young adults.
Despite the crisis, when asked if they would still be motivated to participate in CSR activities for excluded young adults between then and the end of the year 2020, 79.6% of the respondents declared being motivated to organise professional exposure events with the Youth.
And indeed, throughout the year, we experienced this willingness to still take actions for the Youth, with many professional exposure activities regularly organised by our ecosystem.
In fact, in 2020:
376 mock interviews were conducted by 34 partners across Asia.
40 trainings were given to the Youth by 19 partners across Asia
43 company visits were organised by 26 partners across Asia
42 Youth were hired for internships by 10 partners across Asia
29 Youth were successfully recruited by 13 partners across Asia
It seems most responding companies understand the value of hiring Youth coming from exclusion. They cited reasons such as: “Dynamism - Energy and vibrancy”, “Flexibility, the will to learn quickly”, “They are smart, fast-thinkers.”, “Fresh ideas”.
However, recruiting outside of a company’s comfort zones can be intimidating at first. This is why when asked if they would be willing to join a network of companies involved in the professional integration of excluded youth, 53.7% of the respondents declared that they were very interested. The primary reason cited was to be able to share best practices to integrate excluded youth. This exchange between companies is the primary goal of the Youth Inclusion Network (YIN) - a network of companies committed to the inclusion of the Youth initiated by LP4Y in 2016. A network of which 33.3% of the survey respondents were actually already members.
We would like to thank the 50 companies for taking the time to respond to this survey and for giving us your honest take on the effects of the crisis on your business as well as your hopes for the future. If you would like to read the full report, you will find it HERE.
We would like to extend our thanks to our entire partnership ecosystem for keeping on supporting us last year despite the challenges. At the onset of 2021, we wish this new year to be filled with prosperous projects and joy. Just as we hope to keep working together in building a world of equal opportunities.