A youth employability services (YES) center – a first for Ethiopia was officially inaugurated by Mr. Yayheaddis Delele, Head of the President office of the Amhara Regional State and Mr. Ayenew Belay, Mayor of Bahir Dar City on 19th June 2018 in the presence of Dr George Okutho, Country Director of ILO Ethiopia, Mr. Pierpaolo Bergamini, SINCE Programme Coordinator of the Embassy of Italy in Ethiopia and other high ranking officials of the regional government, youth groups , the media and other invited guests. Close to120 people attended the event.

Opening remarks at the launch were delivered by Mr. Yayheaddis Delele, on the relevance of the Centre to the benefit of the region’s unemployed youth. Mr Yayehisaddis expressed his hope that the centre will provide better services for the youth to access information about job vacancies easily.

Other important messages were also delivered by Mr. George Okutho, Director of ILO Ethiopia and Mr. Pierpaolo Bergamini, SINCE Programme Coordinator of the Embassy of Italy.
Mr. Okutho explained the rationale behind establishing a youth centre. He stated that ‘young Ethiopians often migrate from rural to urban areas and onward to outside the country, in search for employment and economic livelihoods, in particular to the Middle East countries and Europe. In response to this problem, the Government of Ethiopia with technical support from the ILO has established the YES Centre in Bahir Dar'.  Mr. Okutho appreciated the generous support of the European Union and Embassy of Italy in the initiation of this project. He assured of ILO’s commitment to support the Centre in developing a range of employment services for job seekers.

Mr. Bergamini went on to further state that ‘the inauguration of the Youth Employability Services (YES) centre in Bahir Dar is an important pilot initiative that aims to improve and give more effectiveness to the public employment services (PES). The youth will take advantage of a public service that actively engages companies and which will facilitate the search for employment for the young generation”.

The YES centre is a joint initiative between the Government of Ethiopia and International Labour Organization (ILO) under the project on ‘Addressing the Root Causes of Migration in Ethiopia’ which is part of the program ‘Stemming Irregular migration in Northern and Central Ethiopia’ (SINCE) implemented by the Italian Embassy in Ethiopia and funded by the European Union Trust Fund (EUTF) for Africa. The YES Centre is being operationalized in collaboration with the Amhara Regional Bureaus of Finance and Economic Development, Labour and Social Affairs, Technical, Vocational and Educational  Development, Youth and Sports and Amhara Employers Federation and Confederation of Ethiopian Trade Union Bahir Dar branch.

As explained by Ruchika Bahl, Chief Technical Advisor for the Project, the YES centre, will promote decent work and equality of employment opportunities for all youth and will strengthen and expand on the existing employment facilitation services of the government. It will specifically provide services such as registration of job seekers and vacancies under one roof- a first time for Ethiopia. In addition, services such as career guidance, job counselling, and promotion of job search and life skills to youth job seekers will also be provided. The center will also play a key role in facilitating engagement and partnership with the private sector through placements and apprenticeships, providing interface with employers though recruitment drives and job fairs. Unemployed youth, university and TVET graduates, and potential migrants are expected to benefit from this Centre. 

The Amhara region was chosen for the setup of this pilot centre as ILO assessments have showed that it ranks high in migration flows and unemployment is the highest in the country. As per the CSA 2013 National Labour Force Survey, while the National unemployment rate was 17.4%, the urban unemployment rate for Amhara region was 18.32%. This region is a priority region for the ILO Project on Addressing Root Causes of Migration in Ethiopia.

This centre will serve as a demonstration project whereby the learning’s and experiences will help replicate similar such models to other regions in the country as well.

The inaugural event pulled together key stakeholders of the project and they agreed to reinforce their efforts to support the YES Centre to fulfil its objectives.  The representatives of the Regional Government showed their commitment to push the objectives of the YES Centre forward.

A special informative flyer on the functions of the YES Centre was prepared and circulated during the occasion. The ceremony also drew substantial media attention from both regional and National media groups which gave wide coverage on the relevance of the YES Centre to the unemployed youth in the region.