Vodafone announced that it will double the number of its existing graduate, apprenticeship, internship and work experience schemes worldwide to reach a total of up to 100,000 young people by 2022.

Vodafone also announced international future jobs program “What will you be?”  to provide career guidance and access to training content in the digital economy for up to 10 million young people across 18 countries.

Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao said: “Every workplace will go digital, creating accelerating demand for a wide range of specialist technology skills. We want to help connect the new generation to the new world of work.”

The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that more than 200 million young people are either unemployed or have a job but live in poverty. Youth unemployment is at record levels, from 38 percent in Italy and 39 percent in Spain to 47 percent in Greece and 53 percent in South Africa — in some of the Vodafone operating countries.

The European Commission estimates that around 500,000 digital jobs across the European Union will remain unfilled by 2020.