A digital platform has been created by The Coca-Cola Africa Foundation (TCCAF) to bring training, employment and mentoring opportunities to African youths. This initiative is a direct function of its pan-African youth empowerment initiative, Youth Empowered for Success (YES!).
Kenya, South Africa and Tunisia are some of the countries were the YES program has already kicked off. YES! Initiative was originally launched in June, 2015 and is on the path to empower 500,000 youth by 2020. This was made possible through the $4.5 million dollar intervention fund from TCCAF in partnership with Microsoft, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator, Mercy Corps and Kuza Biashara. The next phase of the program will see Nigerian, Liberian and Ugandan youths as beneficiaries.
The digital platform boasts of a very easy-to-use interface that will give young people the opportunity to access in-demand training, and skills. It will also avail them the opportunity to access internships, jobs, mentorships, and also help upgrade their entrepreneurial skills via direct link to program partners from the private sector, government and civil society. Amongst other things, the platform also supports SMS messaging and voice-based mobile devices.
The objective of this platform is to provide youths in hard-to-reach areas and those with limited literacy the necessary means to partake in the program. It is a welcome development indeed as it will help bolster entrepreneurial activities in the Africa region, while simultaneously providing participants with the necessary skills demanded by the 21st century work environment.
