Context
The Malagasy population is young; more than half the population is under 18 years. Madagascar has about 6 million adolescents and young people in the age range of 10-24 years. This number is expected to double by 2025. Madagascar’s youth are faced with challenges regarding their future wellbeing in regard to unemployment and employability in general, high school dropout rates, skills mismatch and general lack of vocational guidance required for smooth school-to-work transition. Only 10 per cent of Madagascar’s youth are in formal employment, and they are four times more likely to be unemployed than adults.
Implementation of programme/ initiative
The GoTeach programme was initiated in 2009 by SOS Children’s Villages and DHL Madagascar. The programme was initiated to promote education, empowerment, employability and entrepreneurship amongst the vulnerable youth. The GoTeach programme aims to support young people between the ages of 15-25 in transitioning from school to the world of work. The programme admits an estimated 600 youth annually. The youth are drawn from the three provinces of Madagascar. Through the programme, the youth interact with local employers who introduce them to the world of work, share practical work experiences, teach them good about work ethic and other soft employability skills. The activities implemented under the programme are determined by the DHL team together with youth beneficiaries. This includes getting to know the needs and expectations of youth inclusive of availability of all stakeholders. Youth from other organizations join the programme by linking with the SOS Children’s Villages in their respective countries. Each country participant in the programme receives up to US$ 10,000 from Deutsche Post DHL Group to realize the activities.
Main challenges
The main challenge of the programme lies in mobilizing employees of DHL to provide volunteerism and mentorship services to the youth beneficiaries. Matching the work and operational agenda of the DHL volunteers and mentors, and that of the youth is also a challenge. The programme has attempted to address this by involving and soliciting support and commitment of the top leadership of the DHL. The top leadership of the DHL are now more involved in the programme. Also, volunteer campaigns are often organized to explain to the youth why and how they can proceed with the programme and the world of work. This facilitates listening to the voices of the youth.
Results achieved
A total of 45 youth-targeted activities have been implemented under the programme since 2009. The programme targeted capacity development areas such as soft and basic technical skills trainings, exposure to work environment, job orientation, professional mentoring, forum of works, job shadowing and discovery trades. A total of 2,015 youth and 230 DHL volunteers were also reached. About 42 profesional internships opportunities have been provided for the youth with up to 30 youth who were attached to the DHL under the programme being absorbed in full time employment and are still working with the organization. In addition, a total of 9,000 hours of volunteering were made. In regard to employability skills transffered through the DHL and SOS Children’s Villages, 95 per cent of the youth who had gone through the employability programmes were able to find wage or self employment. The GoTeach programme was recived recognition from the Ministry of National Education and UNESCO in Madagascar in 2017.
Moving Forward
To move forward and sustain this programme, the YouthCan programme was conceptualized. YouthCan is a programme of the SOS Children’s Villages supported by some corporate partners such as DP DHL, AkzoNobel, Allianz, and Youth Career Initiative. The YouthCan is a global multi-stakeholder partnership aiming to strengthen youth employability following the GoTeach framework. The YouthCan programme is now being implemented in nine countries. It is expected that an additional ten countries, including Madagascar will join the programme in 2018. Additionally, an application called YouthLink has been created to digitalize the programme to facilitate online interaction between volunteers and the youth.
Replicability
The GoTeach programme is being implemented in 26 countries. It is expected that additional countries, especially the French speaking countries will be included in the programme in 2018.
| References |
– Facebook account: GoTeach Madagascar |
Project Details
Date: November 20, 2017