The JuventusMx project is an initiative implemented by the Citizen Initiative for the Promotion of the Culture of Dialogue, AC and the General Coordination of Advisors and International Affairs of the Government of Mexico City, subsidized by the European Union. It consists of promoting the social and labor inclusion of youth, mainly those who are mostly in vulnerable situations in the most marginalized areas of the city, reducing their systemic inequality gaps. It does so through complementary lines of action placing them at the center as leading actors in their own processes from the pedagogy of popular education, the psychosocial approach and the constructivist approach.

Placing youth at the centre means that it is necessary to include them in the entire construction process, not only as “beneficiaries” of the processes, from a vertical perspective. But as an active part of their decision-making and the direction of their lives, from a horizontal perspective, also including, from a symbiotic analysis, all those actors directly and indirectly involved in their strengthening, such as government entities, employers, local and international civil organisations and, of course, the youth themselves.

1. To implement the project, the following lines of action are being implemented:

   1. Training and capacity building. To consolidate knowledge in technical, digital, soft and employability skills. These are the requirements that, through the different collaboration spaces, employers and other actors have expressed the greatest need for people seeking to join their workforce and where youth have presented the greatest challenges.

In alliance with Google, Microsoft, Junior Achievement, Jóvenes Constructores de la Comunidad, INTRARE, Programa Casa de Refugiados, Sin Fronteras, IAP, RacismoMx, the Institute for Training for Work (ICAT), the Secretariat of Labor and Employment Promotion of Mexico City (STyFE), the Center for Training for Work (CECATI), the National Council for the Prevention of Discrimination (CONAPRED), the Council for the Prevention and Eradication of Discrimination in Mexico City (COPRED), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX), the Social Union of Entrepreneurs of Mexico (USEM), the AliaRSE Network, the Iztapalapa Mayor's Office as well as various companies and job placement companies - to name a few actors - who voluntarily and in solidarity have donated their time and knowledge to share their knowledge with youth so that they in turn can have more elements to facilitate their inclusion in the labor market. with fair salaries and opportunities for personal and professional growth.

2. Political dialogue and linkage for employability. 

Together with the actors mentioned above and some others, various efforts have been made to materialize a minimum agenda to improve the institutional framework in the long term, which will improve the conditions of youth in their incorporation into the labor market.

The employability agenda prioritizes:

• Promotion of awareness-raising processes with strategic actors on the different contexts of youth.
• Certification of work skills and other training processes for employability, and;
• The long-term strengthening of entrepreneurship (in its individual version and as part of the social and solidarity economy).

Among the main actions to be able to materialize this agenda, there are the spaces for dialogue directed exclusively to employing entities that are held monthly at the Secretariat of Labor and Employment Promotion and that address issues about unconscious biases in the hiring of young people, as well as the discrimination processes to which they are exposed by employing entities and what are the good practices that they can implement to generate inclusive hiring processes, which result in lower staff turnover, increased productivity standards in companies and finally, in the materialization of personal and professional growth in young people who enter the labor market.

The inertia of promoting an inclusion approach in hiring has led to companies offering vacancies aimed exclusively at these young people, with an openness to modifying their standards of both hiring and work dynamics and to continuing to engage in dialogue to continue materializing actions in this regard.

Among the main actions that have been carried out in recent weeks are:

For those who wish to strengthen their entrepreneurship (individual and collective):

• Finance Course and Entrepreneurship Course. In collaboration with Junior Achievement (August 7-18, 2023).

For those who wish to find employment:

• Google Career Certificates (rolling out July–December 2023):

  • Project management.
  • User Experience.
  • Information Technology Support.
  • Data analysis.

For employing entities:

• Conversation with companies about Labor Equality for Youth and the Mexican Standard NMX-R-025-SCFI-2015 on Labor Equality and Non-Discrimination. On August 10, 2023. As a result of this discussion and the great acceptance by companies, a manual on labor equality and non-discrimination for youth is being prepared and will be presented on October 18, 2023, the national day against non-discrimination, in collaboration with CONAPRED.
• Course on soft skills and employability on August 25, 2023.

Upcoming agreements to be signed: 

• With CECATI 176 in Iztapalapa for the implementation of the following courses: cell phone repair, electronics applied to repair, design of educational materials for online projects and Programming Fundamentals.
• With ICAT for the implementation of the Training of Trainers courses, Development of Online Training Courses, Home Care for the Elderly and Installation of the Solar Water Heating System.
• With Junior Achievement for the implementation of the Digital Woman, Female Entrepreneur Program and the entrepreneurship agenda as a whole.
• The next agreements are to promote job banks with a focus on employability:

  • Employers' Confederation of the Mexican Republic (COPARMEX).
  • Autofin Bank for youth employment.
  • Renewable energy company Vansertec (COPARMEX energy commission).

One of the main benefits of the JuventusMx project is that, true to the spirit of collaboration that governs the Citizen Initiative for the Promotion of the Culture of Dialogue, AC, its implementation is in alliance with actors from different sectors, where each of the parties adds their will, intelligence and institutional experience to contribute to improving the social and labor inclusion of youth and their environment, reducing the systemic barriers they face to access decent work.