On the sidelines of the ongoing 42^nd IDB Annual Meeting in Jeddah, SESRIC and UNDP Istanbul International Center for Private Sector in Development (IICPSD), announced their joint publication tittle “Engaging the Private Sector in Skills Development: a Best Practices Guideline and Toolkit” which is designed to guide governments, local authorities, training providers, civil society actors, industry and other key stakeholders in formulating advice on effective partnerships with companies, industry chambers, and other business support organizations, to improve the results of skills education and training. The manual and toolkit outline strategies of how the private sector can contribute to active labour market measures to complement effort of addressing the lack of relevant skills for disadvantaged youth, women and other marginalized groups.

Announcing the report, H.E Amb. Musa Kulaklikaya, Director General of SESRIC expressed his delight at the joint knowledge product. He further stressed the significance of the timing of the publication as the issue of youth unemployment is one of the biggest conundrums of our time adding that the private sector is very crucial in addressing this challenge. He applauded the UNDP and all involve in this publication for the very good job and reiterated SESRIC’s commitments to continuing its co-operation with all stakeholders on engaging the private sector in skills development for youth employment.

The publication is within the framework of “the SEED for inclusive growth project” which seeks to address the unemployment of youth, women and other disadvantaged groups in Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) member countries.