About the Youth Innovation Hub
The Increased youth unemployment rate in Liberia has reached critical levels that demand urgent attention.
Thousands of skilled young Liberians do not have access to economic opportunity because of where they live. Liberia is severely underdeveloped because the human and knowledge capital have not been developed to productively and sustainably exploit the natural resources and produce wealth. Youth are at high risk of dropping out of school without employable skills, credentials, or other qualifications to acquire employment or self-employment. Youths who drop out of school need much more time, as much as two years to be integrated into the formal labor force than their colleagues with acquired qualifications. Youth unemployment and underemployment are of particular concern.Liberia’s National Youth Policy states that the youth constitutes more than a third of the total population and nearly half of the total labor force in Liberia. Over thousands graduate from secondary & tertiary institutions each year & enter stagnant job markets with up to 60% unemployment. This situation increases instability & cripple’s economic growth as it limits young people’s capacity to contribute to the economy.
The Youth Innovation Hub is not only a program but it is a physical location for youth to meet and to find opportunities for education and or skills development. It is a safe space created for youth to freely express themselves, share innovative ideas and network. However, youth in Liberia do not have decent platforms to work on ideas or channel creative energy in a productive way. The lack of such opportunities leaves many talents wasted and ideas unrealized. The Youth Innovation Hub gives young people the opportunity to come together to work on community-driven initiatives with like-minded people.
What we do
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
More about what we do >
Where we work
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
More about where we work >
Our learning
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Browse now >
Stories from our work
Lorem Ipsum is simply dummy text of the printing and typesetting industry.
Meet the farmers>
Program Objectives
To strengthen young people confidence, skills and opportunity to seek out Sustainable Employment and Self-Empowerment.
To Increase Empowerment for young people as change agents and leaders in their communities, in which they will earn income and make life’s choices by creating and managing their own businesses.
Link startup entrepreneurs with investor and Micro-finance institution to enable them raise the seed capital.
Activities
The Youth Innovation Hub is home to
Youth Mentorship and Coaching Initiative
Our goal under this initiative is to engage Youth into career development and transform them into a better leader. With the YMCI, we improve the well-being of the society by transforming the thinking of young generation to take responsibility for their lives by making informed decisions. This program runs for 4 weeks (1month) per cycle.
It aims to provide guidance, support, and skill development to young individuals as they navigate their personal and professional journeys. Here is a list of training areas and activities to be cover during the training period.
Youth in ICT
The incapacity of youths to use the computer and engage the
internet has other consequences and as a result, youths find it difficult to find part time employment as most jobs require computer-skilled individuals. In a country where unemployment reigns at 85%, computer-illiterate youths lay at great disadvantage. Our goal is to provide an opportunity for disadvantage youth with computer programming, coding thereby attracting youth life to computer education that could improve their skills related to ICT and programing. This program runs for 12 weeks (3month) Per cycle.
Youth Media: Train young people to use the available media tools they
have to collect information and tell a story about their communities.
This program runs for 8 weeks (2month) Per cycle.
IMPACT ACCELERATOR: (ITAP) 15 weeks program to start, grow, or transform your business
A Start-Up business accelerator that draws upon a rich pipeline of entrepreneurial ideas emerging from youth communities and higher
institutions in Liberia from the age of 15 – 35. Our entrepreneurship
programs are designed to empower youth to develop their
entrepreneurial thinking and skill set; making sure their idea becomes a reality. Impact Accelerator mobilizes internal and external networks to seed and fund businesses emerging from the hub. Ultimately, the
Impact accelerator model gets entrepreneurs from ideas to funding
literally in 15 weeks!
Under this initiative, we do the following:
i. Provide Business and Entrepreneurship Skills Training
ii.Link potential youth entrepreneurs to enhance better.
iii. Provide youth with a platform of exchanging their ideas,knowledge and skills.
iv. Pitching Competition for Start-up Businesses.
Youth 2 Work
It helps individuals prepare for work through employability training and a work placement. In Liberia most youth lack skills to market themselves effectively to employers or be reliable employees when hired. They are also rejected by employers in many cases because they do not have any work experience, life skills and attitudes usually required to make them reliable, and lower-risk hires. Therefore, without a credible "introduction route", it is harder for them to convince employers to take a chance and employ them. This explosive situation, which YCWL intend to address by preparing potential employees to quickly go up the learning curve on factors that improve their chances of being hired while also ensuring that attitudes, work ethics, CV or Resumes writing, job interview technique, job searching and applications, other life skills, report writing, job placement, computer literacy and other skills are reinforced during a 2-month formal training to make them more reliable employees.