November 27, 2020. This week, the V Meeting of Youth of the Pacific Alliance was held: “Youth, employability and the impact of the pandemic”, which actively convened, on November 24 and 25, about 25 thousand young people from Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The event was organized by the company Nestlé together with the Government of Chile, in its capacity as pro tempore presidency of the Pacific Alliance (PA), and the Swiss Government, as Observer State.
At the inauguration, the President of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, pointed out that “this meeting with representatives of the public and private world, academics, experts, entrepreneurs and above all thousands of young people, is an opportunity to reflect and dialogue on a topic that interests us all, the future of the youth of the countries of our region”.
The 2020 version, for the first time and due to the coronavirus pandemic, was carried out virtually and focused on giving visibility to the impact of the pandemic on youth employability, presenting the model of alternation as a concrete solution to combat youth unemployment, in addition to empowering young people with tools to cope with this new work reality.
“This Fifth Meeting is a unique occasion to support and complement the efforts of the governments of the countries that make up the Pacific Alliance to provide all young people with an opportunity to start their professional lives, integrate into the community and improve their future,” said Laurent Freixe, Nestlé’s CEO for the Americas. He added that “we are very proud that despite the crisis we are experiencing, both the public and private sectors have been able to meet at this meeting which is a platform for dialogue, exchange of good experiences and delivery of concrete tools for young people. And also that we have managed to generate 100,000 development opportunities together with our partner companies from 2017 to date”.
For two days, young people were able to participate in panels on “How the pandemic has impacted the employability of young people in the Pacific Alliance and what we are doing to combat this situation”, where the authorities of the Ministries of Labor of the 4 countries of the PA participated; in “Models of Alternation in Training: Another look to combat youth unemployment”, which had as panelists ministers and undersecretaries of Education of the PA; New Trends in the Labor Market: Do you have the skills for the employment of the future? which had the participation of the director of Sence, and representatives and founders of successful companies.
In addition, there were testimonials from partner companies, success stories, presentations on Women, technology and the work of the future; Youth, employability and digital transformation; and Tips that will change the way you work remotely. They also had access to six parallel talks on relevant topics such as digital marketing, employability and personal branding, equity in the business world, among others.
The presentation of the Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi stood out, who shared with the young people his personal and professional experience, and spoke of the importance of not stopping dreaming despite the difficulties, of resilience, adaptation and renewal.
At the closing of the V Meeting of Youth of the Pacific Alliance, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Chile, Andrés Allamand, and of Colombia, Claudia Blum, highlighted the importance of working with young people, of training them, and of generating opportunities for them to face the future.
Youth Meeting
The Meeting is held since 2016 in the Pacific Alliance, and was born under the auspices of the Nestlé global program “Initiative for Youth”, with the aim of strengthening this cooperation to promote employability, mobility and provide tools for young people, a meeting is held every year that seeks to be a platform for dialogue between public and private sector, experts and young people on the subject. In 2019, it was in Mexico City, in 2018 in Cali (Colombia), in 2017 in Santiago (Chile) and the first in 2016 in Lima (Peru).
PACIFIC ALLIANCE PPT COMMUNICATIONS