The USAID Bridges to Employment project (Puentes), is working to bridge employment and opportunity gaps in El Salvador. Over the summer, youth outreach at El Salvador’s largest annual youth event, Juventour Fair, connected Puentes with hundreds of young people to help elevate youth job skills and entrepreneurship. And in October, Puentes attended the launch of a campaign to bridge gender gaps. Moving forward, the project will help identify organizations in El Salvador that work to improve gender-related policies and practices who can apply for a gender equality seal.
 
Job skills and entrepreneurship at Juventour Fair
On August 18 and 19, 2017, Puentes participated in El Salvador’s largest annual youth event, Juventour Fair. The event featured a variety of stands, presentations, activities and information of interest to youth. Puentes hosted several activities at the event, including job readiness sessions and entrepreneur activities.
 Puentes is implementing a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system to manage all of Puentes’ M&E reporting and data visualization requirements, which includes tracking beneficiaries across providers and services provided. The project is working with Plus Consulting to design, build, and train staff in its use.
One hundred ninety-eight at-risk youth participated in job readiness sessions, where they improved their job readiness by participating in mock interviews with staff of the Asociación de Líderes del Talento Humano de El Salvador (ALTHES).
 
Puentes held a variety of hands-on activities, in coordination with the National Commission for Small and Micro Enterprises (CONAMYPE) and El Instituto de la Juventud (INJUVE), to help these youth entrepreneurs with their business ideas, understand the different phases of starting an opportunity-based business, and participate in clinics to build creativity and innovation.

• Puentes is implementing a Customer Relations Management (CRM) system to manage all of Puentes’ M&E reporting and data visualization requirements, which includes tracking beneficiaries across providers and services provided. The project is working with Plus Consulting to design, build, and train staff in its use.

The “Igual-es” Gender Equality Seal
In October, Puentes representatives attended the official launch event of the Gender Equality Seal: “Igual-es”. This seal is designed to recognize and award private sector companies and local governments for their best practices on gender issues. A committee formed by MTPS, Ministerio de Economía (MINEC) and Instituto Salvadoreño para el Desarrollo de la Mujer (ISDEMU) will evaluate, provide technical assistance, monitor and audit the potential recipients. During the launch event, these institutions presented the scope and benefits of the seal and announced a pilot project they will be carrying out in the first year to award the seal to 10 institutions, including private and public sector organizations. Puentes will identify partner companies interested in improving gender-related policies and practices and encourage them to apply for the seal.