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EquipYouth: Building the Talent Pipelines of Tomorrow
How the Caterpillar Foundation and IYF Are Powering Economic Growth in a Changing World
Talent powers economic growth. Yet around the world, employers still struggle to find the skilled workers they need, even as millions of young people remain disconnected from pathways into stable, career-building jobs. This challenge is not new. But as automation, digitization, and artificial intelligence reshape industries, it is becoming more urgent, and more complex, to ensure workforce systems can keep pace.
For nearly two decades, the Caterpillar Foundation and IYF have collaborated through their EquipYouth program to close this gap. What began as a workforce focus has grown into a proven, demand-driven model that helps young people access jobs, assists employers to find talent, and strengthens how training responds to changing labor markets.
Today, that model is not only reaching more young people—it is doing so in ways that are more systemic and sustainable. EquipYouth helps institutions and technical education systems adapt faster and at scale so they can prepare growing numbers of youth for a rapidly changing economy.
A Model Rooted in Demand
EquipYouth does not train young people and hope jobs follow. It starts with workforce gaps and employer needs. By working directly with industry to identify where talent shortages exist and what skills are needed, IYF and Caterpillar Foundation design training around real labor market demand. That approach helps ensure that young people graduate with skills that are relevant, practical, and connected to actual employment opportunities.
EquipYouth has supported nearly 85,000 young people across Latin America and beyond, from rural communities in Peru, to rapidly growing economies in South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil, and Mexico. Programs are tailored to local demand: logistics and agro-industry in Peru; industrial maintenance and HVAC in Jordan; and manufacturing and technology roles in Brazil and Mexico.
Technical skills alone aren’t enough to prepare young people for lasting careers. Participants also complete IYF’s Passport to Success® curriculum, building the communication, teamwork, problem-solving, and professional skills employers consistently value. Career coaching, internships, and job placement support help bridge the final step into employment.
Resilience in Action – Ories in Indonesia
When Ories Tiana Vitriani’s father died while she was in eighth grade, she suddenly had to help support her family. Passport to Success® training transformed her self-discipline and confidence. After a failed vision test blocked an anticipated internship in Japan, she pivoted quickly and secured a manufacturing job locally—demonstrating exactly the adaptability and resilience EquipYouth is designed to build.
A New Path – Rodrigo in Mexico
For Rodrigo, a young man from Nuevo León, Mexico, the connection to opportunity was life-changing. After his father died, he became his family’s primary provider with only a middle school education. He enrolled in an EquipYouth welding course, completed his internship, and moved into a stable, quality job. In his words: “If I hadn’t taken the course, I would’ve never found such a good job and wouldn’t be able to help my mom with our household.”
Results That Matter – for Youth and Employers
Over two decades, EquipYouth has demonstrated what is possible when workforce training is closely connected to the needs of employers and local labor markets. Results from specific grants and evaluation periods show strong outcomes not only in helping young people find work, but in supporting them to stay employed and access quality jobs.
- Under the original Global Phase I grant (2012–2014), 67% of graduates were employed within six months of completing the program, including in markets facing significant economic volatility and limited formal employment opportunities.
- In Mexico, long-term follow-up under a 2018–2019 grant found that 86% of employed graduates remained employed 16 months later—an important indication of sustained participation in the labor market beyond initial job placement.
- The partnership has also delivered strong results on job quality. Under a 2015–2016 Mexico grant, 87% of employed graduates earned at or above the minimum wage. In Brazil, 73.2% of participants gained new or improved employment within six months of program completion.
- Employers saw value as well: across the 2016–2021 Latin America and Caribbean portfolio, 92% of employers surveyed reported satisfaction with EquipYouth graduates, reinforcing the value of preparing young people with skills that respond to workplace needs.
Taken together, these results point to something more than successful training outcomes. They show that EquipYouth is improving how talent markets function—creating stronger, more durable connections between employer demand and workforce supply.
of graduates are employed within 6 months
remain employed 16 months after graduation
of Brazilian graduates gained new or improved employment
of employers report satisfaction
Walking Tall – Micheel in Panama
For Micheel in Panama, EquipYouth opened an entirely new future. Raised by her grandmother after her mother migrated to the United States, she left school early to work in informal jobs. Despite family disapproval, she enrolled in an automotive mechanics course, completed her training, and secured a paid internship at Grupo Collado. Today she lives independently and says: “With my new job, I walk tall and am confident that I can continue to achieve my goals.”
Strengthening the Institutions Behind Talent Pipelines
Over time, one lesson became clear: sustainable workforce solutions require more than strong organizations. They require strong systems.
That insight shaped a major evolution starting in 2024. Building on years of direct engagement with Mexico’s CONALEP technical education system — including a multi-campus partnership with the state system in Nuevo León — the collaboration expanded and formalized its systems-level approach, embedding workforce practices across a much broader footprint of institutions serving thousands of learners each year.
Today, EquipYouth is strengthening a network of more than 50 schools in Brazil, where recent reporting shows more than 33,000 young people reached through socioemotional skills development, alongside approximately 4,000 students reached annually through logistics training. In Mexico, the partnership is working through public technical education systems, reaching more than 7,000 students in the current reporting year with workforce-relevant skills, including advanced manufacturing, data science, and artificial intelligence.
The result is a multiplier effect: stronger institutions, stronger talent pipelines, and opportunities that will continue benefiting young people and employers long after individual projects end.
The Caterpillar Foundation’s contributions have consistently done more than fund programs. They have unlocked broader change. Across markets, EquipYouth has attracted additional funders and private sector partners, mobilized complementary capital, and accelerated adoption of workforce solutions by national training systems. One strategic investment becomes many.
Looking Ahead
EquipYouth demonstrates that when training is designed with employers, young people and businesses both benefit—and that this model can work across very different labor markets and contexts.
Today, the Caterpillar Foundation and IYF are continuing to move beyond individual programs to a systems approach, helping large training networks adapt to changing labor demand, including the growing impact of automation and AI, and consistently produce work-ready graduates at scale.
After nearly two decades, one lesson is clear: building resilient talent pipelines cannot be done in isolation. It requires companies, educators, workforce institutions, and communities working together.
The work is far from finished. But the model is proven, the results are clear, and the momentum is building. Together, the Caterpillar Foundation and IYF are helping build not only the workforce industries need today, but the systems they will depend on for decades to come.
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