One of the greatest challenges facing these young people is unemployment, with six out of 10 of the approximately 120 million young people joining the labour market each year unable to find jobs.
Efforts to support youth employability must dramatically increase and evolve to keep up with rapid population growth and changes in the global demand for labour.
The Youth Cafe’s Invest in Youth program serves as a coordinating platform for international development activities related to education, employability, entrepreneurship training, mentoring, and leadership development of youth between the ages of 14 and 35.
Building on The Youth Cafe’s research findings and global labour market trends, Invest in Youth activities is currently focused on the following three priority areas:
- Thought Leadership
Invest in Youth is working with partner institutions to develop and disseminate case studies and comparative analyses of pilot projects that have positively impacted youth, particularly in the area of entrepreneurship, reproductive health and food security.
Activities in this area include the facilitation of youth-led conferences, research and outreach projects support for social and business entrepreneurship ventures.
2. Capacity Building
Activities in this area will occur on multiple levels and include capacity building of young people and their ventures through joint program implementation.
It focuses on institutional capacity building and technical training of local NGO partners, government officials and young entrepreneurs.
It also involves the coordination and implementation of livelihood activities with these stakeholders.
3. Content Development
It works with local partners to develop educational content that is culturally relevant and appropriate to the language, literacy and local realities of target communities.
Content developed through this initiative will reflect state-of-the-art pedagogy that utilizes participatory, multimedia and blended learning approaches and delivery mechanisms.
This content will be shared with local youth educators, NGO partners and civil society organizations and used as instructional aides to increase young people’s access to life skills, vocational training and leadership opportunities.
Invest In Youth works with partner institutions to develop and disseminate research and best practices on projects that positively impact youth while equipping them to succeed in a global economy.
Invest In Youth activities also include the facilitation of youth-led conferences; support for social and business entrepreneurship ventures, capacity building of local NGO partners, government officials and young entrepreneurs, and facilitation of livelihood programs.
Meanwhile, Youth Cafe trains and mentors young entrepreneurs on business management modules.
Their approach is based on systems thinking, which embraces the need to understand how diverse forces and structures influence the complex entrepreneurial informal sector.
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