Conference on Education and Decent Work for Youth(LELAM2020)
4th-5th June 2020, ETH Zürich
Extended deadline: Feb. 14, 2020
Organizers: KOF Swiss Economic Institute & NADEL Center for Development and Cooperation

Keynote speakers: 

- Jamie McCasland (Assistant Professor of Economics, Vancouver School of Economics, University of British Colombia, Canada)
- Jochen Kluve (Professor of Economics at the School of Business and Economics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and Head of the Evaluation Unit at KfW Development Bank, Germany)
- Pierre Dillenbourg (Professor in Learning Technologies, School of Computer & Communication Sciences, EPFL Lausanne, Switzerland)

While primary school completion rates in low- and middle-income countries are now nearing 100%, lower-secondary school completion rates are still at only 40% in low-income countries. Alarmingly, drop-out rates from secondary school have been rising in recent years, leaving many young people worldwide in low-productivity jobs. In addition to a lack of schooling, the generally low quality of education combined with stagnant job creation have led to a precarious youth labor market situation in many countries.

Investments in education and vocational skills training can increase the likelihood that youth find productive and gainful work - a key element of inclusive growth. However, increasing participation in or the quality of education will not lead to decent employment opportunities if the skills taught do not match those demanded by the labor market. Moreover, education systems cannot operate in a vacuum: policies and institutions must support the utilization of newly acquired skills.

The aim of the Education and Decent Work for Youth (LELAM2020) conference is to provide a platform for leading scholars, practitioners and policy-makers to reflect on and discuss the drivers of high quality education and training, as well as improved working conditions, for youth in developing countries. Over two days, the conference will feature three keynote speakers, academic parallel sessions, project presentations from practice, and multiple policy plenary sessions.

We invite contributions from economics, sociology and educational science that address the following (or closely related) topics for low- and middle-income countries:

Factors encouraging the participation of youth in education
Conditions enhancing decent work for youth
The role of firms in improving education and youth skills
Incentives of firms to provide decent work for youth
Policies that improve access to and quality of secondary and tertiary education and vocational skills training
Policies for improved youth working conditions
Policies linking education and labor markets
Institutions and governance related to education and working conditions
Success factors and barriers to education reform
Measuring skills of youth in low- and middle-income countries
Designing and implementing surveys measuring individual and firm outcomes

Submissions

Only submissions of full papers are accepted which should be submitted through this website. Therefore, please go on the tab "Conference submissions and registration as attendee".

- Opening call for papers: November 15, 2019

- Deadline for submissions:February 14, 2020

- Notification of acceptance: March 15, 2020