Bem-vindos! Welcome!

Oi! Sejam bem-vindos ao meu blog! Hi and welcome to my blog!

My name is Jenna Shervill and I am one of 7 Canadian Youth Employment Network (YEN) associates working with host agencies in YEN Lead countries around the world. I am based at the International Labour Organization (ILO) in Brazil; Mariam is at the Ministry of Manpower and Migration in Egypt; Nicole is working with the Jamaica Employers Federation; Caroline is with the ILO in Mali; Dana is at the Ministry of National Youth Service, Sport and Culture in Namibia; Aminah is working at the Rwandan Ministry of Labour and Skills and Drew is at the YEN Office for West Africa in Senegal. For more details, please see our full profiles on the YEN website.

Our 7-month internships are part of the Canadian Intenational Development Agency (CIDA)'s
International Youth Internship Program (IYIP). This program is - appropriately enough for our given focus area - an employment program for young Canadians between the ages of 19-30 who have graduated from post-secondary education and want short-term work in a developing country in order to contribute to Canada’s international development goals. The program is part of the Career Focus stream of the Government of Canada’s Youth Employment Strategy (YES) which gives young people the tools and experience they need to launch successful careers.

Our organizing institution in Canada is Vancouver Westwood College. While our duties vary depending on the organization needs of our host institutions overseas, the general terms of reference of my job while in Brazil include:

- Developing and implementing integrated research and development tools to promote best practices for youth employment, institutional and grass roots/NGO capacity building, and presentation, training and implementation in the host country;

- Developing appropriate teaching/knowledge sharing/transfer tools to enhance understanding and capacity building potential for youth employment initiatives;

- Assisting YEN Secretariat and Lead Country partners with ongoing activities to meet their overarching objectives and timelines;

- Contributing to the design and /or implementation of a National Youth Action Plan on youth employment (NAP);

- Supporting YEN and the host country agency with building relationships among local institutions and organizations, including organizing key meetings and events for national and local stakeholders.

For more details on my particular placement, please see the description on CIDA's website. Recruitment for placements usually takes place in the spring of each year, subject to government funding. Two years ago funding was cut for a significant number of non-development focused internships offered under a similar program by DFAIT. It's definitely a good opportunity to take advantage of the CIDA internships while they are still being offered!

A bit about me: I am originally from Ontario, but have been living and studying in in Canada, Mexico, France, Cuba and Brazil for the past 7 years. I have a BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies from Queens University and an MA in International Affairs (Human Security & Global Governance cluster) from the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University. I've been lucky enough to work with Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada (DFAIT) as a volunteer in Guadalajara and as Public Affairs Officer at DFAIT headquarters and am currently enjoying the opportunity to work for a United Nations (UN) specialized agency (the ILO).

Over the next 6 months, I will be posting blogs on topics of related to youth employment in Brazil as well as activities that I am involved in with the ILO-Brazil. Previous posts (2006) were written by the 2006-07 YEN Associate in Brazil, Robyn Davis.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to receive comments on my future posts!

As they say in Brazil: tchau tchau!