But then he couldn't get a job.

“I did absolutely nothing,” he says. He hung out with friends, went dancing, and nourished a vague notion of becoming a salesman. But beyond that, he says, “I had no idea of what I was going to do.”

Now he works in an air-conditioned building, in a coat and tie, selling new and used taxicabs. Earning three times the minimum wage of $117 per month, he is now the main wage earner in his household, where he helps to support his parents and three siblings.

Mora attributes his success to a program known as  Jóvenes en Acción, in which youths between the ages of 15 and 25 receive three months training in job skills followed by a three-month internship in a company or organization. They also receive a food and transportation allowance. The program is administered by a group of government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private companies.

Mora credits the program with teaching him how to keep a schedule, deal with peers and supervisors, and dress appropriately for work. "It changed my attitude completely," he says. "I never imagined I would become a taxicab salesman. But I did always want to sell something."

Mora is one of 100,000 young people participating in Jóvenes en Acción. The program is one of three Colombian government social investment plans that are supported by an IDB loan of $170 million. The other two involve emergency public works for job generation and family allowances for education and health for poor rural families.

"These programs show that when given a chance, Colombian youth can measure up to the job," says Humberto Moreno, a manager for Innovadora de Seguros, one of the participating companies. Although his firm could only hire one of the 10 interns it agreed to train, the other graduates found sales and service jobs elsewhere.

The experience of Jorge Plata, sales manager of an electronic beeper service called BeeperWeb, is even more striking. On their own, the 10 interns his firm trained developed an aggressive door-to-door marketing campaign. "As a result, our sales increased by 35 percent," Plata says. All 10 were offered jobs in the firm. Only four accepted--the other six went off to form their own business.

Other candidates, particularly those who do internships in the public sector, don’t fare as well. Overall, about 28 percent of the trainees find jobs. But for public sector trainees, "possibilities of getting a permanent job are about zero," says Ligia Margarita Borrero, coordinator of Jóvenes en Acción for the Office of the President of the Republic.

The ConfeHogar textile plant, located in the heart of Bogota’s garment district, offers another typical experience. The plant took on 60 interns that were trained by a nonprofit organization, Unión Temporal Minuto de Dios. Twenty dropped out before finishing. Of those who remained, 17 were hired following an internship and seven others joined a cooperative where they work on textile jobs on a contract basis.

"We were nervous at first about hiring youth from very low-income areas, where there is high crime and guerrilla activity," says General Manager Sandra Rocío Amaris Potes. "We admit we are still nervous about it. When they came, the youths had no notion of work discipline, of keeping a schedule, of interacting with management and their peers, of integrating into a business," she says. But the trainees the firm hired proved to be good employees, "giving us a resource at a time of demand," she says.

Work in the textile plant, which manufactures towels, bathrobes, and curtains, consists of a fast-paced eight-hour day, with a 15-minute break and one free meal. The workers are quick with their fingers, sewing machines and scissors. The entry-level salary is the minimum wage of about $117 a month, plus a transportation allowance, a health plan and insurance.

Among the interns who were hired was Olga Fuquen, a deaf mute who recently received a prize from the company as the best employee.

Another former intern Martha Martínez, a single mother of two children with a 10^th grade education, who worked in many other menial jobs before signing up for the training program. She says she prefers the factory job because it offers greater stability and social interaction than her previous jobs.

Her long-term goal, she says, is to finish high school and seek a better job in the future.