Employability: training for the jobs that exist

A gap with two sides

According to DANE data reported by Portafolio in August 2025, there were 2.49 million young people in Colombia between the ages of 15 and 28 who were neither in education nor in work, 22.4% of the population in that age range. The gap by sex was marked: 1.69 million women versus 795,000 men. The youth unemployment rate stood at 15.3%, 2.4 points lower than a year earlier (Portafolio).

On the other side, many companies say they can’t find the talent they need, particularly in digital, analytical and management skills. The coexistence of young people without opportunities and unfilled vacancies indicates that the problem is not just the number of jobs, but the relevance of training.

Training from the demand side

Many training programs are designed from the supply side: what the trainer knows how to teach. Programs that improve employability are designed from the demand side: the capabilities companies need today and will need in the coming years. This requires talking with employers, reviewing real vacancies and updating content frequently.

In our work with a business association, we designed and delivered a consultant training course and a series of webinars for business owners. One lesson was that participants value frameworks they can apply immediately to their own company or a client’s. Concepts without application are forgotten; tools that solve a concrete problem are adopted.

Practice as a bridge

Theoretical training is necessary, but not sufficient. The bridge between training and employment is practice on real problems. In our work with a university SME-support program, we took part in designing a campaign and workshops for business owners. The workshop format, in which participants work on their own business, showed better uptake than lectures.

In our own model, training happens on the job. The young professionals who join Benká work on client projects from the start, supported by partners with experience at global consulting firms. That combination of technical rigor and support is, in our experience, what accelerates professional development.

The capabilities that matter

There are capabilities the market demands across the board that can be developed relatively quickly. Structured problem solving: breaking a problem down, formulating hypotheses and testing them with data. Executive communication: synthesizing findings into clear messages for decision-makers. Data handling: from spreadsheets to visualization tools. And, increasingly, the productive use of AI tools.

On the latter, in the webinars for business owners we include guides for using AI assistants in an organizational self-diagnosis, with structured questions. The lesson is that AI amplifies the capability of those who know what to ask; training must teach how to ask well.

Inclusion as strategy

Employability is also an inclusion issue. The gaps are not evenly distributed: they affect young women more, as DANE data show, and territories with fewer opportunities. Programs that seek to close these gaps need specific design: schedules compatible with caregiving responsibilities, training close to the territories, financial support during training and a direct connection with employers.

Benká Group has made inclusion an operating model, not a program. Our team is made up mostly of women and Afro-descendant talent from different regions of the country. Experience confirms what the literature shows: diversity, combined with demanding standards, produces results.

Associations and universities as partners

Business associations and universities have a central role. They know the needs of companies, have convening power and institutional legitimacy. In our experience, the most effective programs combine the convening power and mandate of the association or university with the methodology and rigor of a partner with practical experience.

Measure what matters

Many training programs measure attendance, hours delivered and participant satisfaction. These are useful indicators for managing the program, but they don’t say whether the training improved employability. The indicators that matter are different: how many participants found a job or improved their income, how quickly, in what type of work, and what capabilities they demonstrated in practical assessments.

Measuring these results requires follow-up after the training, which few programs budget for. We recommend including it from the design stage, with a baseline at the start and measurements at three, six and twelve months. Without that information, it is impossible to know what works and to improve the program in the next cycle. Funders, moreover, increasingly require it.

Training the trainers

An often-overlooked aspect is training the trainers. In the course for consultants we designed with an association, part of the value lay in transferring methodologies to professionals who would go on to support other business owners. This multiplier effect is one of the most efficient ways to scale a program’s impact: each well-prepared trainer reaches many more beneficiaries than the original program could serve.

The condition is that the methodology be replicable: documented, with clear tools and quality criteria that make it possible to verify it is applied properly. The institutions that contract training programs frequently ask us for exactly that: methodologies they can keep using once the program ends.