The term employability in the Mexican context is characterized by a complex panorama where there are substantive challenges such as unemployment, informal employment and underemployment, as well as the precariousness of working conditions, the product of systemic structures that have found few solutions to improve and address them. Particularly, youth (population between 15 and 29 years old) have turned out to be one of the population segments most affected by these structures, which affects their development and well-being possibilities as will be seen below.

According to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography (INEGI) (2023), in 2022, the youth unemployment rate in Mexico was 5.6 per 100 economically active people. Labor informality prevails, which includes the population employed in the informal sector and under working conditions considered informal, such as self-employment, non-remuneration or lack of social security, and the youth labor informality rate was 59.5 per 100 employed people.

The youth underemployment rate for the same year was 7.6 per 100 employed persons, with the services sector being where young people are most employed, with 39.6% of the population aged 15 to 29, followed by the trade sectors, with 21.1% and manufacturing industries with 18.8%.

It is important to emphasize that formal employment guarantees greater stability and, therefore, better future opportunities, as explained by the Center for Research in Public Policy (IMCO) (2022).

 A formal job provides access to minimum social security schemes and better benefits, such as access to medical services, retirement savings funds, mortgage loans, vacation bonuses, disability compensation, among others. This prevents job insecurity and guarantees workers safe working conditions that allow them to improve their quality of life.

In this sense, limited access to formal employment by young people almost automatically represents a condemnation to a future of job insecurity and instability. However, this can be countered to the extent that young people influence the development of public policies that contribute to improving not only their employability, but in general the conditions in which they are employed and self-employed.

Political advocacy involves active participation in the formulation, implementation and evaluation of public policies and government programs. In this way, political advocacy becomes a tool for the real participation of citizens in decision-making. It is one of the ways in which different sectors of civil society can position their agendas and impact public policies by participating, in a democratic and systematic way, in decision-making on issues that affect their lives.

For young people in this country, political advocacy involves advocating for policies that specifically address the obstacles they face in the workplace, where the challenge is no less. Their ability to influence public policy is crucial to ensure that the proposed solutions truly address their needs and aspirations. It is important to recognize that it is not enough to identify a problem and move toward action; it requires the identification and design of specific strategies that allow them to achieve effective influence on the issues that concern them.

To do this, it is first necessary to identify and analyse the problem that one wishes to address, since, by clearly differentiating between causes and consequences, action can be directed towards addressing the roots of the problem, and in this way substantially transform reality in favour of the objectives pursued. In addition to identifying and proposing effective alternatives, seeking models other than those already coming from a neoliberal system that is already exhausted.

A good problem identification process allows for an analysis of the different decision-making spaces and the different channels of influence through which the impact should be made. However, to achieve a greater impact from political advocacy, it is important to have a basic understanding of how the State works and the public policy development cycle, since, otherwise, the impact would be limited.

Thus, once the areas of influence have been identified, an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats is carried out, with the aim of formulating specific influence strategies, which must contain an action plan. In this sense, the better designed the plan is, and in general all the initiatives that are intended to be carried out, the more assertive and effective the influence will be.

There are many different forms of political influence, ranging from the process of placing issues in the public debate and political agenda, either through a very good communication strategy, or through the organization and mobilization of citizens to demand substantial changes in current policies, to active participation in the decision-making process. This can be done indirectly through lobbying, or directly through active participation in working groups and discussion tables to contribute ideas and solutions to the identified problems.

Only a good process of identification, analysis, design and formulation of the strategy on which one intends to influence can be more effective. In this way, the political participation of youth is fundamental for any State, since it contributes to building a solid, inclusive and fair democracy, in addition to making decision-making and governance more citizen-oriented, where youth are taken into account and their demands are incorporated.

The challenges are not minor; at the macro level, the lack of government commitment has led to many young people not being interested in getting involved in politics, feeling that they really have no voice or effective power in the decision-making process. In order to encourage the participation and political influence of young people, it is necessary to provide them with the tools to achieve this goal.

This is how the workshop “Incidence for Youth Employability in Mexico” to be held on November 28 and 29, in collaboration between the Citizen Initiative for the Promotion of the Culture of Dialogue AC, the Dr. José María Luis Mora Research Institute and financed by the Hilton Foundation, was designed taking into account the above-mentioned panorama. Its objective is to contribute to youth and representatives of civil society organizations exercising their human and citizen rights, strengthening their role as social and political advocates and activists and promoting the priorities of the economic, social and labor policy agenda for youth.

The course consists of two phases: theoretical and methodological training, with the participation of high-level specialists, and the comparison of knowledge with reality through the presentation and analysis of successful experiences of influence in the field of employability, as well as the formulation of proposals for influence by the participants.

Only with efforts such as this, in which actors such as academia, organized civil society and international cooperation for development in this country join together for the common good, will it be possible to develop and strengthen capacities for assertive advocacy in order to contribute not only to better employment conditions for youth, but also to governance and the appropriation and exercise of human rights for this population in Mexico.

Sources:

INEGI (2023). Statistics on the occasion of Labor Day, Press Release No. 246/23, April 28, 2023, INEGI, Mexico City, en https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/saladeprensa/aproposito/2023/EAP_Trabajo23.pdf

IMCO (2022). The educational and labor panorama of young people in Mexico, August 11, 2022, IMCO, Mexico City, in https://imco.org.mx/el-panorama-educativo-y-laboral-de-los-jovenes-en-mexico/