Newsletter 20 November 2021
youths not in school, employment or training
empowermefirst.college is here to educate! Many volunteers from all over the world are working to create the educational content, on partnerships and in operations. Our online school enables young school leavers to bridge educational gaps between lower secondary school and university and to do vocational training, for example in computer science.
Before the pandemic, over 258 million children and youth were out of school. This has risen to 1.6 billion. Many NGOs focus on the first nine years, although in most countries this level is mandatory, free and more accessible. After lower secondary school, however, many youths leave school without a follow-up solution. This means that they optain neither further education nor vocational training, which leads to high rates of youth unemployment, child labor or poorly paid, dangerous jobs, for instance in mines. In Uganda, 77% of the population are youth under 25 years of age. They have little prospect of good jobs because they lack the skills that today’s labor market demands e.g., ICT. But they have mobile phones.
Smart Phone adaption expected to double in Sub-Saharan Africa
The pandemic exacerbated fundamental problems such as child labor and marriages or pregnancies of very young women, yes, children.
Three-quarters of secondary school leavers are women. Our system allows young people to learn regardless of location and time. All they need is a mobile phone. But they’re never left alone. They are working in study groups, to allow a focus on peer-to-peer tutoring, allowing them to develop problem solving strategies as a team and their tutor acts as a learning coach, who sees how they solve the online tests, where they need assistance, and who gives them tips for learning. In addition, we have trained people to whom you can turn in case of personal problems or if they have a business idea for entrepreneurship mentoring.
We offer a leaving certificate that allows them access to local but also international universities. For this the learners receive not only a final grade, but also a grade for each semester. Grading is based on three tasks: 1 written work, 1 cross-disciplinary group work, 1 oral examination.
In addition to the general education subjects, we also plan to offer an online computer science vocational training, as this is the ideal profession of the future, especially for young mothers. We have already achieved a lot: curriculum, teaching content for the first semester, contacts and partnerships in the target countries.
Between December 10th and end of February we pilot in Zimbabwe and Uganda, Zambia and Namibia are also on the radar. Here are some impressions from our local partners:
Our biggest challenge is financing. We are therefore extremely grateful to have over 70 volunteers from all over the world who support us in creating educational content, in IT, administration, communication and fundraising. They are our greatest sponsors.
We plan to cooperate with Swiss and international companies operating in the countries by offering them the school part for their vocational training. We also offer our teaching content to interested schools for a donation.
Interested? Contact us.