269 Million Youth Are Being Left Behind: Who Are They and What Can We Do?
- Yui Inaniwa
- Aug 7, 2025
- 8 min read
Who are the 269 million youth not in school, work, or training? For this first entry, I want us to take a moment to better understand and reflect on the lives of 269 million young people or one in five young people around the world who are not currently in school, working, or in training. Often referred to as NEET youth (Not in Education, Employment or Training), these young people — typically between the ages of 15 and 24, and up to 29 in some countries — are navigating incredibly tough circumstances.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), two out of every three NEET youth are young women. For many, being out of school or work is not a choice. They are often prevented from pursuing education or decent jobs due to barriers like unpaid caregiving, restrictive family or cultural norms, health challenges, and pregnancy. In some regions, the numbers are even more pronounced—nearly half of all young women in the Arab States (46.3%), North Africa (44.1%), and South Asia (42.4%) fall into the NEET category, according to the latest Global Employment Trends for Youth 2024.
This is a generation full of untapped potential, stalled by systems that aren’t working together. Some may have dropped out of school or never had the chance to enroll. Others completed high school but couldn’t continue to college or vocational training. Some have degrees and are searching for jobs, finding none. Others have stopped looking altogether—discouraged by rejection, discrimination, or lack of access to opportunities.
Where are the labor shortages? At a time when millions of young people are struggling to access education, training, and decent work, the world is also grappling with a deepening labor shortage and widening skills gap. A labor shortage occurs when there aren’t enough qualified or willing workers to fill open positions in specific industries or geographic areas.
According to McKinsey, U.S. GDP in 2023 could have been 0.5 percent to 1.5 percent higher if employers had been able to fill their open roles. That translates to a potential loss of $136 billion to $410 billion annually, based on U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis data. Globally, Japan’s aging population has led to labor shortages, while Germany and South Korea struggle to fill specialized jobs in sectors like healthcare and transportation.
In many African and South Asian countries, large numbers of youth leave school without the skills required for decent employment, leading to high youth unemployment and underemployment. Latin America and the Middle East experience similar challenges, with weak connections between education systems and labor markets limiting youth access to good jobs.
A skills mismatch exists when the skills of the existing workforce doesn’t align with the needs of the job market. As Generation Unlimited, PwC, and UNICEF highlight in their Reaching Yes report, young people around the world consistently face three core challenges when trying to acquire decent work:
Not knowing which skills are in demand
Lacking access to opportunities to learn those skills
Struggling to demonstrate their capabilities in ways employers recognize
As more information is discovered about labor shortages and skills mismatches, policies and programs continue to evolve. In the U.S., legislations like the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) promote localized, youth-targeted programs and stronger engagement with employers. Countries are innovating globally too:
Germany’s Dual Vocational Training System combines classroom learning with paid apprenticeships, offering national standards across 300+ occupations developed collaboratively by employers, unions, and government
Mexico’s Jóvenes Construyendo el Futuro provides paid on-the-job training and medical insurance to NEET youth through partnerships with employers
Canada’s Workforce Development Agreements provide tailored regional solutions to deliver programs and services that help Canadians get training, develop their skills and gain work experience
The EU’s Youth Guarantee ensures young Europeans receive a job, training, or education offer within four months of unemployment
Botswana’s National Internship Programme provides unemployed college graduates with paid internships across government, parastatals, nonprofits, and private employers.
This isn’t just a workforce challenge—it’s a global misalignment that’s holding back both economies and the next generation. Thankfully, across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, organizations are stepping up and progress is being made through collaborative workforce development programs.
What are workforce development programs? Workforce development programs are created to not only prepare people to enter the labor market—but to help them thrive. These programs often include technical training, life skills, soft skills, career counseling, apprenticeships, and direct links to employers. They help youth earn industry-recognized credentials and prepare them to adapt throughout their careers.
During my time at Sprint, we partnered with Youth Guidance, a Chicago-based nonprofit, to build a job readiness and training program for out-of-school youth, aligning the curriculum with our company’s hiring needs. The result: real job placements and pathways for 86 percent of program participants who had previously been overlooked. In addition to program support, Youth Guidance offered wrap-around support for NEET youth which included counseling, career guidance, financial support, career exploration days, business clothes and employer connections.
But are workforce development programs effective? Today, tens of thousands of such programs exist worldwide to support NEET youth and adults—but do they actually deliver results? For many small nonprofits, rigorous evaluation methods like randomized control trials or comparison groups are out of reach, and comprehensive, aggregated studies remain limited.
Despite these challenges, it is critical that organizations consistently monitor, evaluate and learn from their programs to understand their impact and remain responsive to change. Delivering programs without grounding them in evidence does a disservice to the young people they aim to help. As more youth turn to workforce development programs to improve their lives, we—as program designers and implementers—have a responsibility to ensure these efforts truly lead to decent, sustainable employment.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor commissioned Abt Associates to conduct a meta-analysis of 46 career pathway programs for youth and adults. They found that these programs led to (with high causal certainty):
Large increase in educational progress and industry-specific employment
Small increase in overall employment
Very small increase in short-term earnings (less than 3 years)
Did not meaningfully increase long-term income (3+ years)
Expanding globally, a 2024 report by the World Bank Group (WBG) and ILO reviewed 220 youth-focused active labor market programs worldwide. Their analysis found:
Significant positive impacts on youth employment and earnings, with stronger results in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs)
Entrepreneurship support and skills training produced the largest global gains
In LMICs, the most significant effects were seen in entrepreneurship programs, employment services, and programs that targeted younger and more vulnerable groups (ex: women, low-skilled, and marginalized youth)
In high-income countries (HICs), skills training and wage subsidies led to the most substantial improvements
While Abt Associates studied the aggregate impacts of the career pathways approach on the outcomes above, they also observed that those impacts varied widely. They noticed some of the programs had much larger impacts than others, and shared some characteristics which they called “effectiveness factors.”
Effectiveness factors from the U.S. study:
Employer involvement in curriculum or program design
Staffing agencies are partners
High levels of engagement with Black youth
Effectiveness factors from the global study:
Soft skills training and certifications are key design features
Partnerships between the public and non-public actors have larger impacts than programs implemented by the public sector alone
In HICs, focused and targeted approaches tend to work better
In HICs, local and regional programs often report better results than national programs
In LMICs, combine multiple interventions and longer programs to address complex barriers youth face
These findings suggest that intentional, collaborative, and equity-centered program design can help address systemic barriers such as discrimination and bias—an encouraging step toward building more resilient and inclusive societies. While the studied active labor market programs often yield benefits that outweigh their costs, both the WBG and the ILO highlight the ongoing need for rigorous, cost-effective evaluations. To design truly effective workforce development programs, it is essential to deeply understand the specific challenges young people face in diverse contexts—and continuously adapt in response.
What are some of the effective workforce development programs? The programs highlighted below are just a tiny glimpse of the many initiatives making a difference globally. Their results are not only encouraging, but also grounded in evidence. I’ve had the privilege of learning from these organizations and reviewing their research to better understand how they’re crafting opportunities for NEET youth in their communities.
Project QUEST – San Antonio, Texas, USA
Skills Training Program: One-to-three-year program, designed to fill the skills gap in San Antonio through training and education in high-need sectors like healthcare, advanced manufacturing and trades, or IT and cybersecurity so residents can find long-term jobs and earn a living wage.
14,256+ job placements
250 percent increase in wages
$27.54 return on investment for every public dollar invested
$600.3 million social savings from reduction in welfare and unemployment payments
Effectiveness Factors of Project QUEST:
Majority of program participants are female and/or person of color
More than half of program participants receive public assistance
Sector-specific education and training
Wrap-around support such as financial support, 1:1 counseling, assistance with college enrollment, remedial math and reading classes, and job placement assistance
Collaborations between government, employers, training, education, and community organizations
Year Up United – Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Career Pathways Program: With more than 20 locations across the US, this 12-month program equips students with the skills they need for success through their three-step job training which includes classroom training, hands-on training through an internship, and job coaching and placement support in business, customer service, software or IT sectors.
50,000 students+ served
1,500+ corporate partners have hired Year Up Interns
30 percent average wage gain at six years after graduation
2,700+ talent placements
12 percent of staff are alumni’s
Effectiveness Factors of Year Up United:
Longer program
Majority of program participants are underserved and person of color
Wrap-around support such as student services support (housing, food, transportation and childcare), education stipend, mentoring, and job placement assistance
Sector-specific education and training
Collaborations between government, employers, training, education, and community organizations
The USAID program below has been terminated, but deserves to be recognized for all of the incredible work that was accomplished in the last couple of years with the support from thousands of people in the country of Georgia and internationally.
Five-Year Initiative: Designed to create pathways between skills training and high-value employment opportunities, empowering Georgians to reduce unemployment and catalyze sustainable economic growth across the country. The program engages with local and foreign business associations, national and international investment organizations, corporations, Chambers of Commerce, and critical public sector stakeholders to closely monitor and respond to ongoing and planned changes in labor market needs.
Leveraged $24.14 million in commitments from the private sector and Government of Georgia to launch more than 65 partnerships
Launched 168 training programs with 7,000 enrollees, half are women
Upskilled more than 577 trainers
Helped 62 percent of upskilled students secure new or better jobs
Supported 41 towns throughout all regions of Georgia
Effectiveness Factors of Georgia Industry-Led Skills Development Program:
Employer involvement in curriculum or program design
Targeted underrepresented community members including women, people in rural communities, minorities, and people with disabilities
Performance- or milestone-based grants
Collaborations between government, employers, training, education, and community organizations
Sector-specific education and training
In closing... and, what has been your experience? While workforce development programs vary by city, state, and country, one thing is certain: labor shortages and skills mismatches are shared global challenges. Local, community-driven solutions are having an impact—and global collaboration and knowledge sharing are essential if we want to effectively support the 269 million NEET youth worldwide.
Here are a few key takeaways from my research into workforce development efforts across the globe:
The most effective programs take a collaborative, “all-hands-on-deck” approach—bringing together public and private sectors, and nonprofit organizations. Designed to expand opportunity, break down barriers, and provide the wraparound support services young people need to succeed.
Programs that focus on higher-level, career-track training—rather than short-term, low-wage, or entry-level roles—tend to produce better long-term outcomes. Examples like Project QUEST, Year Up, and Per Scholas show how targeting high-growth industries such as healthcare, IT, and financial services can lead to meaningful, lasting employment.
Aligning educational credentials with labor market demands—starting with high school and college levels—is essential for closing the gap between learning and earning.
There are so many inspiring workforce programs and local solutions making an impact around the world—and I know many of you have seen this firsthand.
What approaches have worked well in your community, organization, or country?
Have you been involved in a workforce development effort that delivered strong results—or offered valuable lessons along the way?
I’d love to hear from you. Please share your experiences, insights, or questions in the comments below. Your perspective can help us all learn more about how to support young people and create stronger, more inclusive workforce opportunities.
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