SUSTAINABLE EMPLOYMENT FOR YOUTH (SEY)

The most significant problem is "vulnerable employment” which applies to unpaid family workers and self-employed workers.  In rural areas youths are informally employed (and underemployed) in subsistence agriculture and family based livelihood activities such as handicraft, fishing and merchandising retailing.  The majority of rural youth lacks skills that are required in order to access employment opportunities.

The objective is to help young people find jobs by creating network of agriculture companies interested in offering vocational training and on-the-job learning and offering employment opportunities. The project help young people to fulfill their entrepreneurial aspirations by developing their skills and knowledge through training, facilitating access to finance to set themselves up, and by coaching them in leadership and business skills. We target underprivileged youth who constitute most of the unemployed and underemployed youth, and moreover are the worst affected by lack of access to vocational skills training, finance and employment market linkages.

The world today is home to the largest generation of young people in history, 1.2b. Close to 90% of them live in developing countries, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Of this youth labour force 43% is either unemployed or working yet living in poverty. In Africa, jobless youth even constitute 60% of the total unemployed. An estimated 440 million young people will enter the rural labour market by 2030 in Africa alone. 

About 47% of the Tanzanians are under 15 years and 32% are between the ages of 15-34. It is estimated that 13.4% of the total youth workforce is unemployed and a much higher percentage is underemployed (Source: Integrated Labour Force Survey)

Herein are the factors contributing to the problems related solution;

• Youth unemployment is priority for governments, yet implementation often is not effective 

•  Opportunities for rural youth employment continue to be mostly found in agriculture 

• The gender parity gap remains 

•  Youth need a diverse range of skill sets 

• Access to finance for youth is crucial yet remains limited 

•  Informal jobs provide the largest opportunity for youth.

The private sector is a critical partner in ensuring opportunities for youth employment

Proposed Approach

The project will focus on providing market-relevant skills development to out-of–school youth. Modalities of skills development delivery will be characterized by:

• Learning by doing: a combination of apprenticeships, field based and classroom based training modules.
• Involvement of TVETs and business training institutions: modules will be developed and provided by technical and vocational centres, and through organisations like SIDO, agriculture training centres and universities.
• Private sector involvement: in skills development through apprenticeships, as well as by involving private sector actors in curriculum development of TVETs to ensure that the skills developed are tailored to market demand.

• Active support in post skills development: matching relationships between employers and potential employees by means of apprenticeships, mentorships, job fairs and youth forums.

• On-line enterprise development support & training services: where applicable, theoretical training modules will be accessible through ICT based platforms.

Skills Development

In addition to formal (technical/vocational, life and leadership) skills development  platforms, the organization will steer the youth through the application of a variety of non formal training methods (coaching, mentoring, on-the job training, youth groups, etc) aimed at strengthening the capacity of the youth to navigate local market dynamics and harness growing sector opportunities.  

Target population

The target group for this intervention comprises of both the rural and urban young men and women within the age bracket of 15 and 35, but with a focus on the under 25 categories who:

• Are Tanzanian nationals
• Are currently unemployed, under-employed or provide unpaid labour
• Have been exposed to primary (and possibly secondary education) and/or vocational training
• Have a strong drive to improve their situation

Particular attention will be paid to engage rural women. It is foreseen that these will constitute at least 40% of the target group. The program foresees an intake of 7,500 youth that will meet the selection criteria. 

Stimulating youth-friendly ecosystems

1. Use market scans

The scans cover the market demand for skills, the market demand for products and services, youth and gender profiles (ambitions, aspirations, obstacles to access to skills, finance, markets) and ‘enabling factors’ 

2. Improve gender equality
Globally there is recognition that gender inequality holds back social and economic progress. The project consider women's economic empowerment, working conditions, and women’s sexual reproductive health a standard component in basic life skills training, and part of longer-term coaching.

3. Creating  Strong focus on financial services

4. Supporting youth inclusive business 

Experiences indicates that youth are more inclined to opt for (informal) self-employment, rather than formal employment in agriculture.  Some youth are involved as out-growers through an arrangement with agro-processing companies. Other companies involved in on-the-job training and mentorship of youth.

In order to reach the project objective of having youth employed as farmers, employees and entrepreneurs after completing the skills development program, private sector will be supported by facilitating agro-enterprises to improve their capacity for jobs creations. In addition, youth whom have successfully completed their technical skills development will be actively supported to find/create employment with existing and emerging enterprises.

 Use market scans
An important quality point in many youth employment projects concerns the ability to concretize the ‘market pull’ at the earliest possible stages. Some projects put heavy emphasis on the ‘push’ side (vocational skills training), ‘postponing’ the opportunity identification and subsequent matching to later stages. In order to address this we have designed and used a more elaborate ‘market scan’ methodology, which has been successfully tested. 

The scans cover the market demand for skills, the market demand for products and services, youth and gender profiles (ambitions, aspirations, obstacles to access to skills, finance, markets) and ‘enabling factors’ (physical accessibility to markets; availability of land, water and electricity; local government support; the supply, quality and price of formal (TVETs) and informal training providers). 

Based on the scans, root causes of the failures of market systems for youth can be analysed and understood. In addition opportunities for youth in the different sectors can be determined. This then forms the basis of detailed project activities.

On line enterprise development support & training services: 

This will be applicable, theoretical training modules will be accessible through ICT based platforms in order to ensure cost effectiveness of the program and to encourage the youth to embrace ICT. So, the project will introduced an on-line database for youth registration (baseline) and recording of progress. In addition, a SMS tracking system will be developed, as well as a web application for youth peer and youth market communication (Facebook and Youtube). 

The on-line database is operational, while the SMS tracking system is currently being piloted. Youth role models have been trained in the web application, which has been met with great enthusiasm.

The organization is guided by its vision a society free from diseases, poverty, hunger, ignorance, and one living in a clean and safe environment where the rights of everyone are realized. STFF’s mission to improve the livelihoods of Tanzanian communities with a focus to youth, women and people with special needs through enhancement of capacity building and socio-economic development activities.

Through this solution, youth, women and other special group (people with disabilities) develop the voice, ability and problem-solving capacity to speak up, be decision makers, create visionary change and realize their full potential within their communities. 

The organization is facing numbers of barriers and it has been working smartly to ensure that those barriers won't affect the operationalization of the organization's activities.

Some of the barriers that currently the organization is facing is about shortage of financial muscle to be able to implement its objectives smoothly. As the organization is positioned itself as part of the solution towards empowering marginalized groups and youth, in a developing country like Tanzania insufficient financial muscle hinders the implementation of organization activities hence may fail to reach its intended objective.

One of the methodology being applied by this organization to overcome the mentioned barriers above is to ensure that the organization engages multiple stakeholders who participate in the implementations of the projects' activities by sharing their resources and services to the target population.

Also, the organization has been working continuously to attract more donors to support its interventions/activities. The organization has been producing several write-ups/proposals and present them to the prospective donors with the aim of selling out the idea and on how the project is going to provide solution to the target groups and to the community at large

16 full time staff

2 part-time staff

2 consultants

STFF is guided by its vision a society free from diseases, poverty, hunger, ignorance, and one living in a clean and safe environment where the rights of everyone are realized. STFF’s mission to improve the livelihoods of Tanzanian communities with a focus to youth, women and people with special needs through enhancement of capacity building and socio-economic development activities.

In achieving its vision and fulfilling its mission, STFF will confine itself to the four identifies strategic objectives. These four objectives are as follows; to promote education, culture, entrepreneurship and leadership; to promote sustainable agriculture, water and environment; to promote human rights, gender and health; to support learning, access to opportunities and job performance through application of information and communication technologies. 

1. Chalice Tanzania

2. Swisscontact Tanzania

3. Fundacion Paraguaya

If my solution will be selected, I expect that Solve will support my organization to implement the selected solution.

So I am applying for the financial support from Solve so that young men and women in Tanzania will be able to access employment and being able to generate income through the creation of business enterprises.

1. International Youth Foundation

2. Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT)

3. TVETS

4. Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO)

5. Vocational Education Tanzania (VETA)

6. Tanzania Horticulture Tanzania (TAHA)

Through this funding, the organization aim at helping young people to find jobs by getting our network of companies in agriculture and in renewable energy interested in offering vocational training and on-the-job learning and offering concrete employment opportunities. We help young people to fulfill their entrepreneurial aspirations by developing their skills and knowledge through training, facilitating access to money to set themselves up, and by coaching them in leadership and business skills. The project often operates in less favorable economic contexts and usually targets underprivileged youth who constitute most of the unemployed and underemployed youth, and moreover are the worst affected by lack of access to vocational skills training, finance and employment market linkages.

The organization will steer the youth through the application of a variety of non formal training methods (coaching, mentoring, apprenticeship, on-the job training, youth groups, etc) aimed at strengthening the capacity of the youth to navigate local market dynamics and harness growing sector opportunities. This will include providing guidance in basic business principles and basic on farm agronomic training to initiate a means for youth orientation to enterprise opportunities (i.e. value addition profit orientation).  The skills development program will start with a Training of Trainers (ToT) targeting beneficiaries. Trainers may include lecturers of vocational training institutes, as well as Local Capacity Builders (LCB) or service providers and the youth that qualify to train as trainers and change agents in their communities.