Ecuador
Strategies for youth employment
- Strategies for youth employment
- Yes
Youth employment strategy planned in the next 2 years
- Discussions within the government
- No
- Consultations with national-level stakeholders (e.g. employers’ and workers’ associations, youth councils, etc.)
- No
- A draft strategy already exists
- Yes
- Other (please specify)
- No
Countries with national action plans for youth employment
- Monitoring framework (timeline and activity/outcome indicators, e.g. youth labour market indicators)
- No
- Funding (indicative budget to implement the plan)
- Yes
- Institutional responsibilities (e.g. ministries/agencies in charge of specific planned activities )
- Yes
- Other, specify
- No
Public funding for the national youth employment strategy
- Public funding for the national youth employment strategy
- Yes
Additional information:
The Ministry of Economy and Finance is responsible for allocating funds to the Ministry of Labour. Furthermore, financing for the implementation of the public investment project “Commitment to Employment” was secured from the Inter-American Development Bank.Youth in the national development / employment strategy
- Youth in the national development / employment strategy
- Yes
Additional information:
The National Development Plan for the New Ecuador, under its Economic Development axis, includes Objective 6, which aims to encourage the creation of decent employment. As part of this, the policy is to develop the capacities of young people aged 18 to 29 to promote their labour market insertion, with the goal of reducing the youth unemployment rate (ages 19 to 29) from 9.29% in 2022 to 8.00% by 2025. One of the main laws enacted by the Government of the New Ecuador is the Law on Economic Efficiency and Job Creation, which seeks to incentivise the creation of new jobs for young people aged 18 to 29 through tax deductions.Countries with national goals for youth employment
- Countries with national goals for youth employment
- Yes
Additional information:
The National Development Plan for the New Ecuador aims to reduce the youth unemployment rate (ages 19 to 29) from 9.29% in 2022 to 8.00% by 2025. Additionally, linked to the National Development Plan, the Sectoral Labour Plan 2021–2025 sets a target for the Public Employment Service of the Ministry of Labour to place 180,000 young people aged 18 to 29 into formal employment contracts by 2025.Countries with quantitative targets for youth employment
- Countries with quantitative targets for youth employment
- Yes
Policy areas in national youth employment strategies
- Macroeconomic and Sectoral policies
- Yes
- Enterprise Development
- No
- Education, Training and skills development
- Yes
- Labour Demand
- No
- Labour Law and Legislation
- Yes
- Labour Market Policies
- Yes
- Other (please specify)
- Yes
Social partners' inclusion in the youth employment strategy
- Workers
- Implementation of youth employment strategies/programmes (e.g. social partners as official implementers of the strategy or programme)
- Fully involved
- Assessment of youth employability (alignment of youth qualifications and skills to labour market needs)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Monitoring and evaluation of youth employment interventions (e.g. active labour market programmes)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Awareness raising, marketing and promotion of youth employment (e.g. campaign to promote youth employment)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Formulation of youth employment strategies (e.g. national action plan for youth)
- Fully involved
- Development of youth employment programmes (e.g. sectoral programme with a clear target to employ X number of youth)
- Fully involved
- Employers
- Implementation of youth employment strategies/programmes (e.g. social partners as official implementers of the strategy or programme)
- Fully involved
- Assessment of youth employability (alignment of youth qualifications and skills to labour market needs)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Monitoring and evaluation of youth employment interventions (e.g. active labour market programmes)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Awareness raising, marketing and promotion of youth employment (e.g. campaign to promote youth employment)
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Formulation of youth employment strategies (e.g. national action plan for youth)
- Fully involved
- Development of youth employment programmes (e.g. sectoral programme with a clear target to employ X number of youth)
- Fully involved
Youth-led organizatios' inclusion in the national strategy
- Fully involved
- No
- Partially involved (only for some elements of the strategy)
- Yes
- Consulted
- No
- Informed
- No
- Not involved
- No
Countries with national partnerships for youth employment
- Countries with national partnerships for youth employment
- Yes
Additional information:
2025 The Public Employment Service (Encuentra Empleo) of the Ministry of Labour signed a cooperation agreement with the Telefónica Foundation to provide free training for young people and strengthen their professional profile to promote their integration into the labour market. Likewise, the Commitment to Employment project seeks to strengthen the professional profile of young people between 18 and 29 years of age, through training and certification of labour skills to promote their access to the labour market. ___________ 2024: Component 1 of the "Commitment to Employment" project proposes to carry out an information survey to identify the needs of the labour market, which will be carried out in January 2024, through technical assistance from the Inter-American Development Bank, and which consists of a survey of the employer sector on training needs, skills certification and the main job profiles required. Thus, in December, several meetings were held with national chambers of commerce in order to socialise the survey. Likewise, in the second quarter of 2024 it is planned to generate approaches with the business sector to publicise the benefits of the aforementioned project. ---------------------- 2023: The Public Employment Service "Encuentra Empleo" has signed agreements with Fundación Telefónica, among others, to strengthen the employment profile of young people. Likewise, the "Commitment to Employment" project seeks to strengthen the professional profile of young people aged 18 to 26 through training and certification of people through partnerships with the Ecuadorian Vocational Training Service, conformity assessment bodies and private training operators. ____________ 2022: The Youth Employment Project works in alliance with private companies, guaranteeing labour rights and increasing the possibilities of an upward career path for the young people hired. So far, 1,423 agreements have been signed with private companies nationwide.Inclusiveness of vulnerable groups in national strategies
- Women
- Yes
- Migrant Workers
- No
- NEETs
- No
- People with disabilities
- Yes
- Low skilled workers
- No
- Rural workers
- No
- Other (please specify)
- No
Youth employment strategies and international cooperation
- Youth employment strategies and international cooperation
- Yes
Additional information:
2025 With UNDP support, a module was developed for the Public Employment Service to facilitate the search for job opportunities and free training processes for young people. 2024: In 2023, the Public Employment Service of the Ministry of Labour received support and technical assistance from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which made it possible to implement the "My Future is Today" platform as a tool aimed at young people to facilitate the search for job opportunities, training, knowledge of current labour regulations, pension culture and financial education. Likewise, in the implementation and execution of the "Commitment to Employment" project, it has technical support and funding from the Inter-American Development Bank, which will allow training in technical and soft skills, certifying labour competencies, linking job opportunities and creating new profiles and qualification instruments focused on the future of work for young people aged 18 to 26 years as part of the target groups that the project will benefit. --------------------------------------------- 2023: With the support of UNDP and ILO, a module will be implemented in the PES platform that seeks to promote labour inclusion and decent work for young people, strengthening their labour skills and their knowledge of labour rights and social protection. With the support of the ILO, a manual for the implementation of a Youth Employment Seal for the recognition of the employer sector was created and is currently under review.