A youth-in-work programme in Solomon Islands will be replicated in the rest of Melanesia if a training programme is successful.
RNZI reports the Pacific Community will train 20 youth from Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu to act as leaders to help unemployed youth in their home countries.
The SPC's Melanesia director, Mia Rimon, said 20 percent of the Pacific's 11 million people are 15 to 24 years old, and approximately half are unemployed.
But she said if the leaders are successful, they could help move large numbers into formal employment.
"We frontload train them on work ethics, on getting a bank account, a mobile phone, a provident fund card, all sorts of things that they would need to go into the workforce. Then we get them a job placement and we give them about 20 weeks with that employer to gain some job experience."