With technology rising and taking over vastly, digital skills has now been the most valuable addition to a youth in the employment sector and entrepreneurship world, For a very long time we have been used to degree/diploma or certificate qualifications been the key items to validate you in the job market, but times have changed now where you need extra skills to navigate and cope with the employment and business opportunities. In order to cope with the current wave one has to put in extra efforts to go beyond the limitations of certificate validation and excel into acquiring the needed skills to be in line with the 21st century requirements.
What does it mean when we say GOING BEYOND?? What would be the initial thoughts of what these two words mean? Is it someone exceeding the limit? Or does it mean breaking barriers? Perhaps Overcoming challenges? The truth is “Going Beyond” is all of these and more. It's the name of an inspiring project born from a powerful collaboration between Digital Opportunity trust and Mastercard Foundation as part of their Youth-Led Future initiative. The project is designed to empower youth through two transformative programs“The Youth Leadership program: Fostering leadership skills and empowering young changemakers.” and “Youth Peer Program/Digital Business Program: Equipping youth with digital and entrepreneurial skills to thrive in a connected world.”
In Tanzania there has been a high percentage rate of youth graduating from university or college but relatively unproportional to the number of available employment opportunities. Youth unemployment rate stood at 2.44%, with urban areas being more affected than rural areas. The education-to-employment mismatch was most significant and this is why it is very pivotal for programs to intervene to narrow this gap by providing youths with the necessary skills and coping mechanisms.
What are these programs about??? would be the first question that would be expected. Well, for context, The Going Beyond Project which aims at elevating the lives of youths in Africa. The project aims to train and capacitate 4000 youth leaders (Youth Leadership Program) who will in turn impact the lives of 300,000 (Youth Peer Program) small business owners through peer-to-peer learning from 4 Countries (Tanzania, Malawi, Ivory Coast and Zambia) through the Digital Business Program in the space of 5 years.
This is where Her Initiative comes in
After a series of onboarding virtual and in person sessions with different partners hosted by Digital Opportunity Trust at Ramada Resort in Dar es salaam, Tanzania, Her Initiative was selected and announced as one of the implementing partners. Vested with a responsibility to employ 20 Youth Leaders to build their capacities through Digital Business Training and deploy them in their respective communities to impact the lives of 1500 SMEs through the peer-to-peer model approach.
The onboarding process
Her Initiative team started by scouting for partner organizations that would be hosting the youth leaders by providing them with a space to facilitate the Digital Business sessions and assist with the mobilization of the targeted peers. 17 partners from Arusha, Morogoro and Dar es salaam agreed to sign the MOU with Her Initiative.
Then followed the selection of the Digital Business facilitators (youth leaders) where 22 of them were enrolled in the Training of Trainers for 10 days. They were immersed in an intensive training provided by Her Initiative staff with the support of a consultant from Digital Opportunity Trust. After this the youth leaders were deployed into their respective regions (11 in Dar es salaam, 5 in Arusha and 5 in Morogoro) to start implementing the work on ground.
And finalized the onboarding process with family engagements and partners sessions where the Her Initiative team raised awareness among 487 community members mainly parents and partners of the youth peers so as to bring stability and prevent any obstruction for them to fully participate in the program.
The Implementation phase
The youth leaders were each assigned to a specific Host organization and started the Digital Business Program, facilitating the digital business content to 25 small and medium enterprises.
70% of the participants were females and 30% of them being males. From August to November the Youth Leaders were able to mobilize and train 1039 entrepreneurs (73.8%) females and 259 (26.2%) males.
Business Verification
This is where we say “Put your money where your mouth is. Youth leaders visited the youth peers' business centers or areas so as to validate their businesses. This was a very crucial activity for the project as it gave a clear picture of how dedicated these peers were and how much they are willing to see their businesses grow.
The Connection
After a series of ongoing sessions for two months, it was then time for the youth peers to graduate, this is one of the most important sections of the project.Her Initiative team organized a Business Development Service event, where different stakeholders were invited to provide further opportunities and business formalities. Stakeholders such as Brella, The Tanzania Revenue Authority, Brella, and various financial institutions, including banks and local government representatives, are among the stakeholders who are sharing how the youth peers can benefit from adhering to the services offered or from learning about the financial opportunities, such as VSLA or soft loans, and how to obtain them.
And for the Youth Leaders they had a career linkage event which was a collaborative effort between two partner organizations (Her Initiative and Sheria Kiganjani). The event connected the Youth leaders with different experts who shared their experiences in the job or employment sector, how to build a proper and positive mindset towards a successful career, the essentials of making oneself an employable candidate, how to navigate the challenges of managing NGO’s, how to excel from local to international employment spaces, how to effectively use the digital spaces through freelancing and content creation as a way to have fun and also make money. 41 Youth Leaders benefited from this event (21 from Her Initiative and 20 from Sheria Kiganjani).
The end goal of the project is to give opportunities to youth and also empower them to create opportunities for themselves, empower young Africans to have a voice , bridging the gender digital divide gap in business or job opportunities. At the end of the Youth Leadership program, the selected participants are expected to have experience enough to attract a job opportunity elsewhere and as for the Youth Peer Program the participant is expected to elevate their businesses and luckily for those with a clear prospect and participation would be upscaled through provision of seed funding.
The metrics
Words from the youth leaders/beneficiaries/parents.
Issaya Richald , Youth Leader at Her Initiative “ This is a great opportunity for me as a young graduate, it gives me the opportunity to gain a more practical experience and shaping me for a more suitable chance to get a job in future, the journey training the youth peers has given me so much joy because I now can be proud to say that I was involved in influencing small changes in someone’s business through the digital business program so as to make them have better chances of thriving in the digital ecosystem.
Nancy Gideon - Going Beyond Beneficiary “ Her Initiative through the Going Beyond Project has helped me in different aspects of the business, from planning, setting prices and also having a clear business strategies, I have also learned about how to manage finances, previously i used to use the profits for my own personal stuff not knowing that i can re-invest the money so as to sustain my business, I have also added a 10% increase of customers from digital marketing skills application like how and when to post businesses on social media platforms”
