Tackling the NEET Challenge in BRICS: National Policies

We live in a world where each new generation of young people enters the labour market later and later, and the reason is not always a longer period of education. BRICS countries view reducing the share of NEET youth—young people aged 15–29 who are not in employment, education, or training—as a priority area for cooperation. To address this, they are introducing vocational training, internships, career guidance, and access to jobs and social protection at the national level. Such programs can improve lives of some young people from vulnerable groups and their families. However, reducing the national NEET rate requires not only comprehensive support measures but also a favorable combination of institutional and macroeconomic conditions, which vary from country to country.

In most BRICS countries, except for Russia and the UAE (6.7% in 2025 and 8.9% in 2023, respectively), the NEET rate ranges from 15% to 35% of the total population in this age group. After rising during the COVID-19 pandemic, the NEET rate in most BRICS countries has begun to decline, but the gap between countries remains significant (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Share of youth (15–29) not in employment, education or training (NEET^a) (%)

For young people themselves, long time spent in this status can lead not only to financial hardship but also to social isolation and deterioration in mental health.

The NEET rate simultaneously reflects a shortage of suitable jobs, a mismatch between skills and employer demands, difficulties in transitioning from education to work, and the presence of social barriers (for example, the lack of tools that allow people to combine employment with caregiving responsibilities for children or adults with disabilities, as well as barriers for people with disabilities and health issues). That is why BRICS countries strive to implement comprehensive support policies to help NEET youth re-enter education and the labour market.

BRICS countries' measures regarding NEET youth can be grouped into three main areas. 

In Russia, China, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Indonesia policies to reduce the NEET rate are implemented primarily within the framework of broader employment policies and are built around strengthening the link between the education system and the labour market.

India is implementing the National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF), which establishes clear qualification levels and certification pathways, providing opportunities to obtain vocational and general education. The "Skill India" mission and the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS)—flagship programs launched in 2015–2016—are designed to develop skills through training, professional internships, and certification to address the shortage of skills needed for employment. To involve the most vulnerable young people in the programs, active outreach policies are being implemented: for example, recruiters from local communities directly engaged with young women aged 15–21 in rural areas around Delhi—many of whom had been economically inactive due to early marriage, pregnancy, and family responsibilities—telling them about available vacancies and vocational education opportunities, thereby helping them overcome barriers to participation in the workforce.

In South Africa the Presidential Youth Employment Intervention (PYEI) has been implemented since 2021, combining measures for career guidance, training, employment, and support for youth entrepreneurship. Its goal is to coordinate and scale up existing tools through cooperation between the public and private sectors. Since its launch, the initiative has provided over 1.57 million people with opportunities for learning, gaining first work experience, and employment.

In Brazil, the focus of policies to reduce the NEET rate is on supporting young people during their transition to the labour market and developing their professional skills. The modernization of the Public Employment Service (SINE) involves developing digital platforms, using modern job-matching tools, identifying skills gaps, and directing job seekers to targeted training. The Young Apprentice (Lei do Aprendiz) professional internship program, functioning since the 2000s, is being reformed to ensure a closer link between the content of educational programs and the actual needs of employers, and to reduce the risk of formal participation of young people in low-skilled jobs without meaningful skill development.

In Egypt, the Technical Education 2.0 strategy is being implemented to modernize technical and vocational education, aiming to improve the alignment of young people's vocational training with employer demands and to facilitate their transition from education to work. At the same time, the FORSA program is designed to move some young unemployed and out-of-school social assistance recipients from passive social support to economic activity. To achieve this, low-income and economically inactive youth are offered vocational training, assistance with paid employment, and support for self-employment.

At the same time, the impact of NEET support programs does not always translate into changes in the NEET rate. While in India the NEET rate decreased by approximately 4 percentage points between 2009 and 2024, and in Egypt by 6 percentage points, it remained unchanged in South Africa and Brazil. Research shows that employment programs in South Africa under the PYEI help participants gain their first work experience, develop professional skills (including soft skills), and find employment, but they do not guarantee that participants will retain their positions in the labour market. Researchers attribute South Africa's persistently high NEET rate to the low quality of education, poverty, fragile social networks, a lack of information among young people about educational and employment opportunities, and an insufficient number of long-term jobs. The situation is further exacerbated by spatial inequality that emerged during the apartheid era and now complicates job searches for young people in rural areas. Regarding the situation in Brazil, studies show that participation in Young Apprentice internships increases the likelihood of subsequent permanent employment and contributes to higher wages, especially among youth with lower levels of education. However, existing research does not yet come to a straightforward conclusion that these specific measures caused the decline in the NEET youth rate after 2020; it is more likely associated with the recovery of the economy and labour market following the pandemic.

A systematic review and meta-analysis by the ILO, covering more than two hundred evaluations of youth employment programs between 1992 and 2022, shows that targeted measures combining the development of hard and soft skills, the organization of professional internships, job search assistance, interaction with employers, and follow-up support for participants are the most effective. South Africa follows this approach, while India and Brazil implement certain elements of it (primarily through apprenticeship and on-the-job training programs). On the contrary, short-term, isolated measures focused solely on vocational skills training or only on job placement are significantly less likely to ensure a sustainable exit from NEET status for young people. At the same time, the effectiveness of programs increases significantly when they are adapted to the specific characteristics of the local labour market and the needs of specific groups of young people.

Research on NEET determinants in Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa from 1999 to 2023 shows that economic growth, rising real wages, and low inflation create more favorable conditions for reducing the NEET rate, although they do not guarantee a sustainable effect on their own. This likely also explains the decline in the NEET rate in Egypt and Indonesia. Furthermore, the impact of specific policy areas varies. For example, a positive correlation between public spending on education and a reduction in NEET rates was found only for Russia, while the relationship between employment structure and the NEET rate differs between India and South Africa. In the latter, an increase in the share of salaried workers is accompanied by a decrease in the NEET rate, whereas in India the opposite is true—it rises. This suggests that identical tools can have different effects on the NEET rate depending on the characteristics of a country's labour market and economy.

Thus, the experience of BRICS countries demonstrates that policies addressing NEET youth, aimed at improving lives of specific individuals and their families while helping large numbers exit this category, are built on two complementary levels. 

The next step in BRICS cooperation could be the establishment of a permanent platform on youth employment to jointly develop methodological guidelines for implementing NEET support programs, evaluating their effectiveness, and sharing successful practices.