Country Colombia

Over the years IYF’s initiatives in Colombia have created lasting positive change in the country by preparing youth for jobs, building lasting alliances, producing a wealth of research and new learning, and informing new policy built on best practices. As a result of our partnerships here, underserved young people like Adail gained the technical, life, and entrepreneurship skills to avoid drugs and violence and instead find stability and fruitful work. You’ll find Colombia among the countries we studied together with CSIS and Hilton Worldwide in the Global Youth Wellbeing Index.

In August 2020, and with the support of Google.org, IYF began integrating the Google IT Support Professional Certificate—a Coursera-hosted curriculum in IT support skills—into its offerings, providing scholarships, instructional support, and wraparound support for vulnerable young people in Colombia whom, due to a lack of economic resources, have been unable to advance their education and get a formal job that allows them to overcome poverty. Through technical training, life skills, and career guidance (leveraging IYF’s PTS Traveler and My Career My Future curricula), and other work readiness activities, IYF and Google.org will enroll 760 participants in Bogota and Medellin and strengthen technical capacity within implementing local institutions by creating a community of local teachers trained in our signature PTS socio-emotional curriculum skills.