For more than 100 years, The Rockefeller Foundation’s mission has been to promote the well-being of humanity throughout the world. Together with partners and grantees, The Rockefeller Foundation strives to catalyze and scale transformative innovations, create unlikely partnerships that span sectors, and take risks others cannot – or will not.
Recognizing the challenge of youth unemployment, and particularly in Africa, the Rockefeller Foundation launched its Digital Jobs Africa (DJA) initiative in 2013. DJA’s goal has been to influence systemic change, bringing together the demand and supply sides of the labor market to significantly increase employment opportunities for high potential, disadvantaged youth (HPDY).
On the demand side, DJA has promoted the adoption of Impact Sourcing by demonstrating the benefits to businesses of hiring well trained marginalized youth. On the supply side, DJA has supported best-in-class demand-driven training that has prepared disadvantaged youth for job roles in growth sectors, such as ICT.
This Demand-Driven Training Toolkit brings together lessons learned from the work we have done together under DJA. We believe it will help to bridge the gap between youth skills as acquired through formal education systems, and employer needs. It will be of most critical use by governments, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions, Universities, youth training organizations focusing on skills development, as well as donor and development partners who support such programs.
We applaud you all for your efforts to both create viable employment opportunities for young people and prepare them for the future of work. We know this is key to building stronger, more economically productive communities around the globe.
Making Cents International works to advance the social and economic well-being of youth so that they are able to fulfill their potential to work, innovate, enrich their communities, and profit from the global marketplace. To this end, we are pleased to have been able to create two products, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, that promote the scaling of demand-driven training (DDT) models which provide young people with the skills they need to get employment.
Our Demand-Driven Training Framework presents background on the DDT concept and profiles ten leading DDT organizations, synthesizing their common elements and operating practices, as well as capturing their critical processes and lessons learned. This Demand-Driven Training Toolkit builds upon the DDT Framework, bringing forward detailed descriptions and examples of the best DDT practices along with tools and resources that you can begin integrating in your programs immediately.
The Framework and Toolkit are designed to support users in assessing the market alignment of their youth training program, while also identifying where the program can be improved. The tools also help organizations make training investment decisions, as well as assist education and training providers in optimizing their performance results and impact.
As employers around the world look to hire strong talent and the youth population continues to grow, it is imperative that we provide young people with the right skills to meet the needs of the workplace. We believe this toolkit is one means for you to achieve this important goal.
The Team Behind The DEMAND-DRIVEN TRAINING FOR YOUTH EMPLOYMENT TOOLKIT
With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, Making Cents International developed this set of tools and resources for youth development
stakeholders across the world.
Mike Stuart – Linkages – WorkFit
Chris Vorwerk – WorkFit – Learning
Sonja Blignaut – Sensemaker – WorkFit
Liz Moore – Marketing – WorkFit
Stephanie Buhrer – Change – WorkFit
Andile Msimang – Research – WorkFit
Acknowledgements
The toolkit was developed with assistance and feedback from a number of South African technical vocational education and training colleges and universities including:
- Central Johannesburg College
- College of Cape Town
- Northlink College
- South West Gauteng College
- Tshwane North TVET College
- Tshwane University of Technology
- Vaal University of Technology
- University of Witwatersrand
Valuable insights were also provided throughout the process by the following organizations:
- Accenture
- BPESA
- BPSA Education Foundation
- Expeditors
- Intel
- IREX
- JPMorgan Chase & Co.
- Mastercard Foundation
- Prudential
- RTI International
- United Kingdom Department for International Development
- United States Agency for International Development