Bridges to Employment Project Monthly Report April 2016

The project's main objective is to create an enabling environment for workforce development, focusing on the labor market, policy, service providers, and participatory youth assessments. Key activities undertaken in April 2016 included the validation of evaluation tools for the four assessments, which involved training enumerators and testing survey instruments with businesses, training service providers, and youth. The tool for the assessment of employment policies was shared with human resource experts from the Association of Human Talent Leaders (ALTHES) to obtain their feedback and comments. Small adjustments to the tools were made as a result. Meetings with stakeholders continued in April, with the Bridges technical team presenting details of the project's goals and objectives to various government officials, industry associations, and private sector companies. These meetings aimed to establish working relationships and explore potential collaboration opportunities. The project team also met with USAID to discuss ways to collaborate with Manpower, a company that serves a different type of population. The project held meetings with various industry associations, including the Salvadoran Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CAMARASAL), the Asociación Azucarera, and the Asociación de Distribuidores de El Salvador (ADES). These meetings aimed to introduce the project and find opportunities to work together, with a focus on developing technical careers and improving workforce development. The project also met with private sector companies, including Walmart, which is looking to develop and improve its local supply in meats, fruits & vegetables, and seafood. The project team will schedule a follow-up meeting with Walmart to present their development projects. In addition to these meetings, the project team carried out subsequent coordination and working meetings with various government agencies, including the Technical Secretariat of the Presidency, INSAFORP, ASI, FUNDEMAS, INJUVE, and the Ministry of Labor. These meetings aimed to initiate the design of joint work plans and discuss MOU content with various partners. The project also conducted initial visits to municipalities to introduce the project, including Sonsonate, Ahuachapán, Zacatecoluca, and Ciudad Arce. The mayors and some members of the municipal councils were enthusiastic about working with the project and expressed their support. The project's objective of improving the enabling environment for workforce development was further advanced through a follow-up meeting with ALTHES, which provided the opportunity to review the employment policy assessment tool and check if the structure, general strategy, and thematic areas responded to technical inputs that ALTHES had previously provided. The project also coordinated a meeting with the LGBTI Director at the Secretaria de Inclusion Social (SIS), who emphasized the importance of providing advice to other institutions of the Executive Branch and carrying out education and training programs. The Director expressed support for the project in designing awareness raising and educational materials and offered to participate in short training or educational programs in the field. In terms of pilot and instrument development, the project conducted three pilots at Crowley, Gumarsal, and Telus, analyzed data from the pilots, and made revisions to the survey instrument and some minor changes to the way some of the questions will be asked. The project also provided an overview of the overall project to provide enumerators' perspective, conducted security protocol training, and trained enumerators on practices for collecting high-quality data, ensuring confidentiality, and representing the project as the first point of contact.