Code REACH

REACH will implement a multi-faceted program that will skill disadvantaged youth in technologies for future and sustainable employment opportunities. The center-piece program will be a unique and intensive six month coding course that feeds into a social enterprise to further enhances skills and prepares students for industry.

Coding is the conduit that under-pins all new technologies. In addition to the well-known technology sector, coding is becoming an essential tool for advancement in most business sectors. Manufacturing, science, medical, and even art, design and finance are all engaging coding to provide advanced and tailored solutions to their development. The solution will model REACH's existing programs and focus on disadvantaged youth with no post secondary training. Poverty and disability will be targeted. The solution will include a new and innovative training course in coding (programming) that will fast track skill development in a six month intensive course. At the same time existing courses in graphic design, 3-d modelling and web-design will be scaled. A linked IT social enterprise will deliver long-term sustainability to the training programs.

The solution addresses the Challenge question in delivering innovative learning to disdavanatged youth. Training will skill them for sustainable employment in growth sectors of the global and local Vietnamese economies. REACH's rigorous and inclusive selection procedures will ensure that students chosen for the training are genuinely disadvantaged in terms of poverty, disability, gender or ethnicity. Post-training alignment with a new REACH Social Enterprise will develop entrepreneurship and enhance skills for employment.

Scaling the project will provide for the development and integration of best-practice methodology for training in programming for disadavantaged youth. As an innovator in the field of vocational training, REACH will share their successes in the field of vocational training as an effective means to tackling youth unemployment. REACH has worked with Plan International to replicate their methodology in over 40 countries through the Youth Empowerment Program. Code REACH will be scaled to provide training and employment in growing and sustainable sectors across Vietnam with opportunities to duplicate the model in South-East Asia, especially Cambodia and Laos

Successful training programs for disadvantaged youth must deliver sustainable employment outcomes. In Vietnam there are still sustainable employment opportunities in the service sector, especially in hospitality and tourism. Some of REACH's current training and employment programs align with these sectors. REACH recognises that training in some areas can only deliver short term employment solutions. In manufacturing for example, robotics and other CNC machinery is destined to take over in the near future. REACH is cognizant of this problem. Code REACH will deliver innovative programming and IT training for sustainable long-term employment that has both local and global applications.

Effective change is about doing better than 'second guessing' the future. It is about observing subtle changes in society, quantifying those changes, then preparing to be in the best position to take adavantage of those changes and to work efficaciously with them.

There is much evidence that technological changes are having a huge impact on employment opportunities in western societies. The challenge for developing economies like Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos is to prepare effectively for these changes and create new employment possibilities in the technology sector. Code REACH will address this challege through its innovative training in coding

The impact will be to provide sustainable and long-term employment opportunties for youth from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Target outcomes will be disadvantaged youth; including those from poverty, affected with HIV/AIDS, disability, former sex workers, human trafficking victims, and domestic and international migrants.

An innovative training program will be delivered to the students across three platforms. Industry-accredited training in coding (programming) will provide the basis for the training. This will be supplemented by an on-line portal incorporating self-assessment tools. Code REACH, the Social Enterprise, will enable trainees to have a direct face to customers and industry requirements.

Student tracking and monitoring system - At least 100 selected disadvantaged youth will receive IT training at REACH centers

Student tracking and monitoring system - At least 80% of graduates (80) will be placed in industry-relevant jobs within 2 months of graduation

Financial reports - Code REACH generate enough income to cover 20% of training cost in the second year.

The solution is innovative in its design, implementation and delivery. The programming training curricular will be designed and delivered by industry based instructors and regularly interface with businesses that engage coders. The basics in HTML and Javascript will be delivered in the first 3 months training. Industry standard web and e-commerce applicatiions such as Wordpress, Joomla and Magento will be the focus in the phase-2 of the training. The coding class will also intersect with the existing graphic design, web-design and 3-d modelling classes to integrate a business model through the Code Reach social enterprise initiative to develop sustainablity.

REACH is cognizant of the changes in Vietnam’s labour market. Approximately one million people enter Vietnam’s labour market annually. This number will increase significantly when an open labour market is introduced under the ASEAN Economic Community. To ensure our disadvantaged youth can compete, REACH program staff regularly survey the business community to make improvements to our training agenda. Regular “market scans” and routine consultations with businesses keep our programs up-to-date with the market. This consultation process results in the curriculum for existing courses being updated regularly. It lead to a new 3D computer modelling class launched recently and Code REACH. 

Code REACH will work with different social organizations and local people committees to access the most disadvantaged youth, who cannot attend formal training because of poverty. At the first stage of the project, we will mobilize philanthropy contributions to provide the training free of charge to those youth.

It is expected that at later stage,  Code REACH, the social enterprise will be able to generate enough revenue to cover its own operational cost so that the training will continue to be provided free to those marginalised groups.

In its strategic planning REACH has identified that all new initiatives will incorporate a social enterprise component. In addition to preparing disadvantaged youth to take up employment in programming and the IT sector, Code REACH, a social enterprise, will be established as a commercial enterprise providing services to its customers.

The social enterprise will also engage students from the graphic design, web-design and 3-d modelling classes to develop a real commercial potential. The enterprise will deliver services such as web-design, e-commerce, content management, social media and search engine optimisation directly to clients or on a consulting basis to IT businesses .

Through this enterprise revenues will be generated to provide the opportunity to build a sustainable training model. This will enable the scaling of the training operations and a capacity for it to expand and provide support to new at-risk communities in Vietnam and South-East Asia, especially Laos and Cambodia.

It will face challenges as an emerging business. The social enterprise will need to build a substantial customer base to generate revenue to fund sustainability and scaling.

 Developing regional partnerships for scaling .

The solution will engage disadvantaged groups, including youth with a disability,former sex workers and human trafficking victims. These face heavy discrimination and social stigma, limiting access to education and employment. These issues will need to be addressed by equipping students with high level skills and characteristics sought by employers including life skills training, language training, work readiness training, extra-curricular activities, career counselling and mentoring support.

https://www.facebook.com/REACHVietnam/

We are applying to Solve to fast track a solution for sustainable long-term employment for disadvantaged youth in Vietnam and South-East Asia. Resourcing Code REACH will provide a solution to skilling disadvantaged persons to work with the new technologies of the future. Resources for scaling our pilot program will enable more students to be trained and for a start-up social enterprise initiative to be launched. This initiative will further enable the growth in of the program and its duplication in regions outside Hanoi. In addition the solution would greatly benefit from advice and mentoring expertise in training and business development.

We work with different partners:

- NGOs, social organizations, local people committee to recruit the right targeted youth for training program.

- Businesses in the sector : we work with designing companies and IT outsourcing companies such as Br24, Pixzels, FPT, etc. to develop training curriculum and provide technical training. 

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