Today there are 31.4 million young people without employment in Asia Pacific.1 While youth employment is rising in the region, without new, decent work opportunities many young people remain at a greater risk of poverty and exploitation.2
Despite the growth of job opportunities, a key issue for many countries in this region is the gap between the skills and experience of young workers and those required by employers.
As a growing industry with an achievable entry level, good career prospects and jobs to offer, the hospitality industry has the potential to help young people from every background start a rewarding and lifelong career.
In 2011, our youth employment programme expanded into Asia Pacific, launching our first programmes in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Our industry-endorsed programme combines classroom training with hands-on experience within a world-leading hotel.
Since then, we have run successful programmes in eight countries across the region, supporting nearly 1,400 students to gain the skills they need to access meaningful employment within the hospitality industry and other sectors.
The programme currently operates in two countries across the region.
Our programme provides opportunities to young people who are particularly vulnerable. This includes people who’ve grown up without parents, in a difficult family setting or may have experienced various forms of exploitation, discrimination, alcoholism or domestic violence. In particular:
Through strategic partnerships with funders and non-profits, we are currently working to grow our programme and deepen our impact in these countries.
Please get in touch to support our programme in any of the above countries, or to discuss other destinations.
“After the programme was finished, I was offered a job at a luxury hotel in the city and now I can pay my own rent. I am completely independent and no longer have nightmares. There has been a lot of suffering in my life but I believe that I can now have a meaningful life full of loving care and a proper education.”
Survivor of human trafficking, Vietnam programme
“In next year, I hope to become a shift supervisor in the hotel kitchen and continue to improve the skills I have learnt on the programme.
I would like to express my gratefulness towards the programme, the hotel staff and trainers who have spent time guiding us to acquire important vocational skills. It has improved my mindset and confidence day by day. I am ready to start a new life-journey.”
La Triệu Vỹ, Vietnam programme graduate, 2019
Building resilience of young people against trafficking through skills development and partnership with the hospitality sector.
Opening up new perspectives for young people in Sri Lanka through hospitality training.
In 2010, we began a 5-year partnership with the US Department of State’s Office to Combat and Monitor Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) to explore how our youth employment programme can be adapted to support survivors of human trafficking in key locations. We adapted our programme model to ensure survivors could access the necessary psychological support during their training, as well as implementing a series of awareness raising workshops for hotel staff and local non-profits.
During the grant period, our programme supported over 60 survivors across Ethiopia, Kenya, India, Mexico and Vietnam to gain the skills and confidence they need to build promising careers in the hospitality industry and beyond. Learnings from this project have helped shape our approach to supporting survivors in our on-going programmes and supported the development of our work with Global Fund to End Modern Slavery (GFEMS).
We are helping young people and working to increase disability inclusion in hospitality in this region.
We are seeking partnerships with funders and non-profits to increase the impact of this programme in Asia Pacific and across the world.
1. ILO (2017), Global Employment Trends For Youth 2017, available from www.ilo.org
2. ILO (2018), Asia-Pacific Employment and Social Outlook 2018, available from www.ilo.org
3. WTTC (2019), Asia-Pacific, 2019 Annual Research: Key Highlights, available from www.wttc.org
4. Ibid.