By Melany Nayib Mejía Villalobos 

Youth Advisory Group GOYN Barranquilla, Colombia

Barranquilla's youth have demonstrated a remarkable ability to identify, analyze, and generate solutions to the challenges they face in the field of employability. Through their firsthand experience, many young people have developed innovative proposals, projects, and programs that respond to the reality of the labor market, focusing on strengthening relevant and contextualized skills.

According to the 2024 GOYN Barranquilla report, an estimated 401,000 young people (TP3T) of the city's young population are "young people with potential," meaning people between the ages of 15 and 28 who are not studying, are not working, or are working informally. This group faces multiple structural barriers to accessing decent employment and training opportunities. A particularly worrying fact is that 51.41% of these young people are women engaged in unpaid domestic and care work, highlighting a deep gender gap that restricts their participation in the workforce and accentuates their economic vulnerability.

Given this situation, entrepreneurship has emerged as a viable alternative for many young people. Beyond a means of subsistence, it is seen as a way to exercise economic autonomy and generate sustainable solutions at the community level. Creative thinking, identifying local problems, and the pursuit of financial independence are key elements that drive young people to become entrepreneurs.

The listening and participation spaces promoted by the Youth Advisory Group of GOYN Barranquilla, in coordination with various organizations within the ecosystem, have been key to understanding youth perceptions and needs regarding employment. In meetings held in different neighborhoods of the city, young people have repeatedly expressed the need for educational training to incorporate complementary pathways focused on the development of soft skills, digital competencies, leadership, and teamwork. There is a clear consensus: traditional academic training is insufficient and must be strengthened with tools that prepare young people to face the real challenges of the labor market. They have also highlighted the importance of companies not only offering employment opportunities but also implementing support processes once a contract is signed, thus facilitating sustainable and meaningful job placement.

Regarding training and employability opportunities, initiatives such as the "I Want to Be Digital" Fund stand out. It offers free training in digital skills, job search support, and complementary support. To date, 445 young people have graduated from this program. The Promigas Foundation, through "More Youth Employment," promotes the employment of young people in vulnerable situations through training, support, and connection to the labor market, while strengthening entrepreneurial skills to foster the creation of new businesses.

GOYN Barranquilla has implemented a strategic line based on co-creation with young people, facilitating meetings with local companies to identify human talent needs and raise awareness about the benefits of including young people in their hiring processes. A constant in these spaces has been the identification of a critical barrier: information about job and training opportunities is not effectively reaching the most vulnerable areas. This limits equitable access to opportunities and reinforces the gaps of exclusion.

This assessment invites collective reflection: How can we ensure that information reaches the young people who need it most in a timely and relevant manner? How can we achieve true coordination among ecosystem stakeholders so that efforts are not duplicated, but rather complement and strengthen each other?

In conclusion, although there are valuable initiatives and the commitment of multiple stakeholders, significant gaps in access to decent jobs for youth in Barranquilla persist. The response to this challenge cannot fall solely on young people. A sustained and coordinated effort between the public and private sectors, social organizations, educational institutions, and young people themselves is required to advance toward a more inclusive and equitable employability ecosystem. Transforming youth trajectories also involves changing narratives, recognizing young people as key actors in local development, with capacity, talent, and proposals that must be heard and promoted.