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Background

The ‘Estamos Listos’ project was implemented in two sub-tropical regions in the northeast of

Peru: the high jungle of Cajamarca, specifically the provinces of Jaén and San Ignacio, and

the Picota, Bellavista, Mariscal Cáceres and Lamas provinces in San Martín. The situation in

these provinces is similar to that of other areas of north-eastern Peru, characterised by

limited employment and few business opportunities for young people as well as the existence

of important supply chains of two flagship products: coffee in the Jaén and San Ignacio

provinces (Cajamarca) and cocoa in San Martin. The project was a rural development proposal

geared towards a particular problem: the relationship between youths and employment in the

Peruvian countryside. The project’s objective was to improve the employability of young

people between 16 and 29 years of age.

The main challenge for the project was the limited job opportunities and entrepreneurship

which increases social exclusion and restricts access to better economic, health, education

and job training conditions. This problem also limits political, community, social and cultural

participation, making it more difficult for rural youths to obtain employment and, therefore,

earn an adequate wage. Some causes of this problem were:

The rural labour market does not actively create quality jobs. In other words, most of

the jobs are informal with no formal contracts or social benefits. The majority of

youths work in family farms carrying out subsistence farming activities, often without

compensation, so they can be considered unpaid family workers.

Key points

Donor: Entra21

Dates: Sep 2008 – Aug 2010

Sub-sector: Coffee and cocoa

Location: San Martin and

Cajamarca, Peru

Successes: Skills-based training

model was adopted by the public

education sector. Farming

became viewed as a valid career

Impact Awards winner 2011

Young Rural Entrepreneurs - Peru

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Young people have little or no technical qualifications to join local production chains

under better conditions, as they cannot afford higher education costs. Furthermore,

there are no local educational institutions that meet the demands of the local labour

market.

Limited entrepreneurial skills due to traditional training that does not encourage

entrepreneurship and business creation. Due to their social vulnerability, rural youths

have a low self-esteem and a limited capacity to take risks for fear of losing

everything.

High gender inequality rate, as families tend to differentiate between sons (more

education) and daughters (more domestic chores).

High expectations of migration. Young people are looking for better paid jobs and are

therefore migrating to urban areas in search of better opportunities.

Less access to various health and education services. As unpaid family workers,

young people receive no social benefits from their work.

Restricted access to and lower quality of communications (ICTs). Although rural

youths gain access to Internet in public booths, they are unaware of the potential of

this instrument.

Sustainable Impacts:

Training modules

The training modules reflected the specific needs of productive activities and the technical

assistance required by the market (coffee and cocoa supply chains). The skills-based

approach was used and the productive technical training centres (CETPROS) were involved,

not only to provide teacher-training to technicians and professional instructors, but also to

certify the skills of young students according to educational, monitoring and job placement

standards. This influenced the creation of a new occupational alternative: organic farming as

a relevant and continuous form of education for the local market. This was accomplished by

the following:

• Internalisation of the skills-based training model by public education institutions

such as the CETPROS to ensure its replication, continuous education and the

economic development of the region.

• Public-private coordination: Producers’ cooperatives, CETPROS, Local

Governments taking on complementary training and job placement roles.

• Creation of a local system of access to certified rural education combined with

productive technical education.

• Expansion of young social capital during the training process. The participation of

cooperatives in the training process provided the opportunity for young people to

meet people involved in the business sector, giving them a better chance of

finding a job once they finished their training.

• The certification of skills leads to the social acknowledgement of rural youths.

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Labour Integration and Partnerships

The integration strategies developed by the project included:

• Design of educational modules linked to value chains needs

• Skills certification

• Access to land through family arrangements

• Promotion of technical assistance services

• The design and implementation of business plans or plans to improve family

ventures or their own businesses

• Access to loans and technical assistance or personalised support

• Inclusion of young people as members of cooperatives

These were very successful, enabling the project to gradually influence young people,

families, the community and stakeholders.

Institutional Impact on Management of Training and Labour Integration Model

The impact on local and private institutions was twofold. Firstly, the skills-based training

model was adopted and approved by the public education sector. Secondly, change was

initiated in the institutional practices to a participatory and inclusive management of the

training model and the labour integration policy.

Approaches Used to Achieve Impact at Scale:

Project Context

Various aspects were taken into account in the training and labour integration model of the

‘Estamos Listos’ project, primarily regarding the business environment for carrying out the

experience. In this context, three basic conditions are highlighted:

• We identified a territory with dynamic markets linked to the biodiversity of the

region, where more dynamic supply chains with flagship products like coffee and

cocoa provided a gateway to obtain short term but not exclusive results. The

occupational training model can gradually be complemented to include other

economic activities specific to the area, taking advantage of the range of

opportunities offered by the biodiversity and looking at the development of the

domestic and regional market.

• We took into account the socio-economic profile of the rural youths, who in this

case are mostly sons of small-scale farmers, descendants of the colonisation

process that took place in the Amazon (sub-tropical) region since the 1960s,

mainly by migrants from the Andean region. This is an important observation

because it differs from other sub-tropical and Andean highland areas where the

cultural and ethnic characteristics must be borne in mind, in addition to market

variables.

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• The existence of a dynamic business sector with certain levels of development,

willing to play a key role in the training and labour integration process.

Intervention

Once the context was understood, the project team specifically:

• Identified the socio-economic circumstances of the young people and their job

expectations, with the help of specialised surveys.

• Conducted a survey of local institutions in both the public and private sectors,

identifying the key stakeholders for the training and integration process, their

needs and their circumstances.

• Obtained clear and well-defined commitments between organisations in the

education sector, market agents and development organisations. These

partnerships were based on common objectives and different roles, aimed at the

consolidation of a rural education and employment system for rural youths. In

short, local institutions that share a common vision to jointly manage the training

proposal and the labour integration policies.

Facilitation

A good knowledge of and commitment to the objectives proposed by the project was required,

as well as constant facilitation efforts that included participation in the social and cultural

activities of the stakeholders in order to obtain their confidence and commitment for the

concerted action. However, the process was relatively short (2 years) to achieve a wider scope

and scale.

Lessons Learnt

As a result of the lessons obtained from the project experience, large scale impacts can be

increased and costs lowered, as follows:

• Identify economic activities that offer more employment opportunities, with

growing demand and production chains, and environmentally and socially viable

comparative advantages.

• Maintain a systemic perspective of the learning method throughout the process,

linking local processes with regional and national platforms.

• Prepare the training programme in a participatory manner with all local

stakeholders (the civil society and the public and private sectors), in order to meet

market demands and achieve sustainable local development, promoting the self-

management of the local institutions working with the model. To this end, efforts

should be made to involve all stakeholders from the early stages of the process

(surveys, planning, notices).

• Apply training strategies adjusted to the local circumstances (education reaching

out to young people and not vice-versa), with enough flexibility to overcome any

unforeseen events that may occur during the process.

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• Have a clear knowledge of public educational institutions and their regulatory

frameworks, seeking the formal accreditation of the vocational training provided to

young people as the key to employment and social recognition. The certification

of job-training has a strong appeal to young people and their families, preventing

abandonment and generating market acceptance.

• From the beginning of the training process, establish relationships between the

agents of productive chains (demand) and young trainees, in order to increase

their social capital and incorporate them into productive chains as soon as

possible after they have finished their training.

• Keep track of the operations of the various organisations involved, including those

indirectly linked to the project. For example, the project sought to influence

magistrates (judges) of the peace courts to ease the award of certificates for

donated plots.

• Closely monitor the early stages of the integration process and promote effective

feedback between public and private organisations and the producers’

associations, in order to respond to the circumstances that may arise during the

process.