Map of Me (MoM)

Youth unemployment is a massive cross-sectoral problem compounded by climate change, a lack of drinking water, housing shortage,  pervasive pollution
With increasing mobile usage and internet at the lowest rate ever, we propose to take on the challenge by connecting
the sectors and the dots for young people, particularly by making school-to-work transitions from secondary school
accessible in the public domain, that is, creating a dynamic mobile/digital skills platform that links to work and enterprise
opportunities

For this we have designed, Map of Me, a Mobile/Digital Platform for the youth in India, with a fierce focus on young women getting the skills they need to go to work in new careers and/or start a sustainable enterprise solving the biggest problems in their city. It is powered by hyper-local and fun content to enable skills based learning. Content in form of videos of entrepreneurs and businesses in the city, blogs, morning shows and much more

At least one-third of India’s youth population lives below the poverty line. A major source of potential advancement is
unprecedented increases in school enrollment and retention in the past decade. A lack of access to skills training prevents youth from entering new enterprises or skilled employment.
India faces the peculiar situation wherein when women’s labor force participation decreases as education levels rise (Chatterjee et al 2018; Afridi et al 2017). Neither school nor vocational training specifically addresses girls’ aspirations (or lack thereof) to work and socio-cultural obstacles to engaging in the work force. ILO predicts over 18.9 million young people to unemployed in India.
We want to tackle the problem of school to work transition, unemployment and creating more sustainable enterprises by preparing young women and men for the future and equipping them with enterprise-ready skills, through a mobile
platform and network, which means anyone can access it anywhere and it’s not school dependent. We hope to improve
young people’s employment prospects and participation in the paid work force through skills based content and corporate partnerships for jobs and start-up funding.

Map of Me is a youth content platform.It's a app and a website powered by content. Content through which young people get the skills they need to go to work in new careers and/or start a sustainable enterprise.

But we don't intent to be boring, as young people are not. So we also have content that makes us a sticky youth channel. Street food, art, sports, music. Everything happening in the city that’s interesting to young people.

It features hyper-local content in form of funky videos, articles and a morning radio show. It features young entrepreneurs and their skills/design-thinking/innovation/ climate change story helping the city. It features women at work in new careers and the skills they need to do
their work. It included Funky people who work for the city and are making it a better place, unrecognized local public heroes.

We are backing the content with corporate and government partnerships. We will have entry level jobs listen on the platform, linking it with content.
There is an entrepreneurship page, where young people can learn everything about entrepreneurship, as well as submit ideas and proposals to attract start-up funding from our partners.

Map of Me is looking to target kids in grade 11th and 12th in government schools of India. Being a mobile/digital platform we would also be able to reach millions of young people in India, during their long commute to work or colleges. A huge part of the youth population which is looking to learn new skills to work in the careers of their choice will be directly impacted through Map of Me. We have already piloted the solution in 2 cities in India- Bangalore and Kolkata, impacting 50,00 kids in both cities.

To create Map of Me we first conduced user research in form of interviews and detailed surveys with over 650 young people age 18-23 on the way to work using public transport like bus, train. We understood their user behavior on mobile phones, their likes and dislikes, APPs & content they consume- from entertainment to news, information on jobs and the skills they want to acquire.

The content we create and publish on Map of Me has and will help kids to learn new skills they need to either get a job or become sustainable entrepreneur. This would help tackle the high unemployment rate in the country.

MoM is a mobile/digital youth platform, an app and a website. Through the platform we will equip the youth with skills they need to stay apace the changing jobs market, skills that will help them choose a career of their choice. With growing connectivity and affordable data costs, we will be able to reach youth people without the requirement of being physically present with them and hence transcending boundaries.
Map of me will be a place to absorb great content about the place you live in, acquire the skills you need and sustainably solve the biggest problems in your city.

We define innovation in this context as developing creative approaches using technology that are locally relevant and
sustainable, tailored to local problems and connect young people to the world around them.

The key innovations of this program are:

1. Linking skills and education and employment through the Go to Work Coalition.

2. Addressing women’s barriers to work force participation through a continuum: aspirations, skills, training, social
norms and linkages to opportunities. We are creating newly designed, visual, pro-girl and women-at-work career skills
content.

3. Ensuring local relevance.

We will be reaching young people online with highly localized and relevant content which will equip young people with the skill they need to get the jobs they want or start enterprises which solve the biggest problems in their city.

Young people in India didn't have exposure or access to such content with such ease until now, content which addresses their needs and requirements and reflects on what the youth wants. Map of me will be the link between young people and the skills needed for different jobs and or to start a business.

Map of me is an app and a website so it's essentially a software solution to cater to the needs of the youth in different cities in India.
Adding to that, the platform is powered by video content which ensures maximum engagement with the young people we are trying to target.

Online learning has been a big hit globally. Websites like Khan Acdemy and Coursera are proving courses across all categories to millions of people. Most top universities have courses online.
Millions of people around the world are learning online and gaining meaningful employment through it too.

We are taking the online skill based learning to a hyper-local level through content with Map of Me. We will be able to reach people with their own cultural references as well as universal messages through the web and on our app.

Provision of skills-based, career-focussed, visual content to young people through a mobile/digital platform and with
volunteers taking that technology to young people in the government secondary school education system can build
career aspirations and develop the market-ready skills required for young women and men to pursue work or enterprise
of their choice.
Effective provision of this content and use of technology, combined with direct linkages to support school-to-work
transitions, will improve labour force participation.
In addition, gender-sensitive content on aspirations, social barriers and social norms will support girls’ transitions to work
as well as inclusion of everyone in their right to access work of their choice.

Map of Me currently impact 50,000 young people in 2 cities in India- Bengaluru and Kolkata. We launched the app and a website as a pilot this year and took it to secondary schools directly to young people.

In the next one year we will deepen our impact both the cities and reach 1 million people in both the existing cities. We will also launch in 2 more metro cities of India- Delhi and Mumbai and impact 500,000 kids in the new cities as well.

Over the next 5 years we aim to present on over 20 cities in India, creating wonderful hyper-local content, employment and entrepreneurial opportunities. We hope to impact over 10 million kids across India in the next 5 years.

We launched a pilot of Map of Me in the last quarter of 2019 in 2 cities in India- Bengaluru and Kolkata, reaching 50,000 young people.
Over the next one year we will fully launch in the current cities, going on ground to 200 schools in each city, as well as reaching out to a large number of youth on their ways to work or college through digital marketing and promotions. We will be able to impact 1 million kids in Bengaluru and Kolkata over the next 1 year.

This year Map of Me comes to 2 more cities, one is Delhi, the national capital of India, whereas the second is Mumbai which is the financial capital of India.
We will follow the same path in the new cities and reach 500,000 young people in Delhi and Mumbai.

Over the next 5 years we aspire to be present in the top 20 cities in India impacting 5 million young people in grade 11th and 12th + 20 million young people online. Our goals are audacious but so if the problem we are solving.
Who knows we can even take it international to countries like Mexico, Argentina and South Africa.

We predict to face a range of barriers as we look to achieve our goals over the next 5 years.
The immediate exits that we look to accomplish are mostly technical and promotional needs.
As the platform gets bigger to enroll more cities and young people, the technical requirements behind the app and website will also increase which we don't have the best expertise in. We are also looking to partner with great marketing firms to promote our platform and reach as many young people as we could, to ultimately benefit them.

We currently have a funding partner in British Telecom on board for the next 5 years to support the project through grants. British Telecom is the biggest network provider in the UK and employs over 20,000 people in India. We will receive technical expertise from our partners to overcome the tech barrier.

Similarly we are trying to partner with the right marketing agencies, who understands our users needs and finds the optimum way to reach them on their phones and laptops. We are building the online strategy for Map of Me to impact 1.5 millions kids in 4 cities over the next one year.

We aim to build holistic solutions which will help us scale the platform with ease and be present in 20 cities over the next 5 years.

Not applicable.

We are a team of 130 creative professionals spread across 5 states in India. Mumbai is the headquarters of our organization, Going to School.

Going to School is a diverse team of creative professionals working across 5 states in India. We have produced and released the first season of Children’s Scrappy News Service on national television, as well as run the largest skills in schools program in 1,000 government schools in Bihar.
Our team consists of writers, designers, filmmakers, artists, editors, teachers, researchers and lot more, all being led by Lisa Heydlauff, the Founder, Director and CEO of the company.
Lisa Heydlauff founded Going to School in 2003, in Delhi and has since nurtured it into a creative not-for-profit which delivers wonderful content and skills at school to millions of kids in forms of adventure graphic novels, entrepreneurial stories, a mobile digital platform and a national television show.
We believe that everyone lives through stories ans that's what people identify with. We at Going to School are a bunch of enthusiastic story-tellers, who plan to tell 100's of stories through Map of Me all over India, inspiring and impacting the youth.

We partner with multiple corporate companies, not for profits, government companies and entrepreneurs to make content as well as have employment and entrepreneurial opportunities on our platform.
These partnerships differ city to city but we involve multiple stakeholders with whom we could look to impact young people, specially women from low income groups.

Going to School will design and deliver interactive education curriculum in Government Secondary schools to teach children the skills they need to complete their education, get a job, or start an enterprise. This programme will ensure that students, especially young girls, build the aspirations and skills to make informed life choices regarding employment, starting an enterprise or pursuing higher education. 

Going to School’s solution i.e. Map Of Me will work to improve the continuum from school to work in four ways:

Skills: Ensuring girls and boys have market-relevant, technical and communication skills to pursue their aspirations.

Opportunities: Linking and facilitating entry into appropriate jobs and enterprises for girls in particular:

Aspirations:  Building girls’ dreams, desires and plans to pursue work or enterprise after school

Enabling environment:  Creating a supportive environment through peer-led social networks, at home and in society to address norms that prevent girls from working such as distance, safety concerns and child care responsibilities.

Our program components/activities can broadly be divided into four categories:  

Content Development – Delivery at Scale – Linkages from School to work - Mass media to reach families and wider communities

Solve can help us with monitory and funding needs as well as our technical and promotional needs.
Since we are a NGO (Non-governmental-organization) in India and we cannot make a profit, Map of Me is supported through grants by British Telecom, our funding partners.
We would also like help from MIT to scale the tech of our platform.
The solve community can help us with promotional ideas and marketing strategy to reach and impact millions of young people we can across India.

The backbone of Map of Me is built through partnerships. May it be partnerships to provide jobs or entrepreneurship to young people or it maybe partnerships to produce exciting content about the city, sustainability, startup founders and women heroes.
It may be partnerships with the city government to reach a larger number of young people or with marketing agencies to build promotional campaigns to promote Map of Me.

So we look to connect with various individuals and companies through Solve to partner with for our project and help scale it to millions of young people across India.

We would like to partner with the likes of MIT faculties and student volunteers to help us scale the platform to millions of young students across India.
We would also like to partner with MIT online learning to have their courses on our platform for the young people we impact.
As mentioned before, we encourage any type of helps which helps us scale Map of Me from a technical and a promotional aspect.

Not Applicable

To support 50,000 young people in 200 Government High Schools to whom we’ll directly take the content and platform and they will complete 26 weeks of making a new life plan.

Not Applicable