In 2009, the global youth unemployment rate reached its high: back then, 75.8 million of 1.2 billion young people (aged 15 – 24) were unemployed worldwide. Since then, unfortunately, not much has changed. In 2013, the global youth unemployment rate is 12.6%, compared to a 4.5% unemployment rate for adults. At the same time, many companies are looking for qualities that people are not educated for: thus, there is a mismatch between demand and supply.
Also, in 2010, 357.7 million youth were not in education, employment, or training, and the number is increasing. About half of the world population lives from $ 2.50 or less a day, and 152 million young workers live in households below the poverty line (which earn $ 1.25 or less a day).
In Peru, the young population consists of 8.117.000 people, which represents 28% of the total population. The region of Cusco has around 850.000 people of working age, of which one third is youth (15-29). Almost 27% of this young population is unemployed. Unemployment and underemployment is becoming a serious social problem, especially because the current educational structure is insufficient in producing graduates with job skills in line with the market demand. Thus, Project Yachay is targeted at helping disadvantaged populations in developing skills and abilities that will allow them to either enter the labor market or improve their current position in the job market, to make their positions more sustainable.
