YouthPower Learning Webinar - Financing Skills Programs for Youth Employability: Highlighting Unique Program Revenue Mechanisms
When: Wednesday, March 22, 10:00 am - 11:30 am ET
The YouthPower Learning Cross-Sectoral Skills for Youth Community of Practice(CoP) hosted the webinar "Financing Skills Programs for Youth Employability: Highlighting Unique Revenue Mechanisms" on March 22 at 10:00 am ET.
Programs that provide training in technical, vocational, and soft skills to youth in developing countries have been widely shown to strengthen their economic opportunities and access to gainful employment. However, financing such training programs can be a challenging task, and many youth beneficiaries are not able to afford training fees. Without support from donors or external funders, programs may not be able to implement their training activities long-term. As a result, many program implementers find it necessary to incorporate unique revenue mechanisms within their models, often partnering with local employers, subsidizing fees for high-need beneficiaries, or creating lenient payment plans.
This webinar addressed the complexities of financing skills training programs for youth by highlighting some of these models. It featured presentations from program implementers and researchers working on skills development for youth, shedding light on financing approaches that allow for program sustainability without losing track of the financial limitations of youth beneficiaries.
Presentations:
Ali Jaffer, Generation
Generation.pdf (26.77 MB)
Rob Urquhart, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator Harambee.pdf (473.98 KB)
'Gbénga Sèsan, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria Paradigm Initiative Nigeria.pdf (21.65 MB)
Useful resources:
Funding Mechanisms.pdf (249.09 KB)
A Better Metric for the Value of a Worker Training Program (Harvard Business Review)
Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator Overview 2016 (Video)
About the speakers:
Nancy Taggart, Senior Youth & Workforce Advisor, USAID Office of Education
Nancy Taggart has over fifteen years of experience managing international education, youth workforce, and gender programs in Sub-Saharan and North Africa. Prior to joining USAID, Ms. Taggart worked at Education Development Center (EDC) as the Youth Technical Team Leader in the International Development Division. Ms. Taggart also served as Project Director for several of EDC’s youth and workforce programs including the Jordan Workforce Development Program, Guyana SKYE, and the Garissa-Youth Program in Kenya. She holds an MA from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a BA in History from Northwestern University.
Suezan C. Lee, Education Specialist, USAID Office of Education
Suezan Lee has more than ten years in international development and education. Her prior roles at USAID include Acting Basic Education Team Lead and Deputy Basic Education Team Lead overseeing education programs in over forty country missions. While at USAID, Suezan has worked in policy, strategy, and evaluation. Her technical expertise lies in education finance where she has led USAID's work in affordable private schools, digital education finance, public-private partnerships, public financial management, bond issuance and development credit guarantees. Suezan currently works on issues of scale and sustainability as well as innovative financing approaches in education which include digital payments and demand-driven workforce development programs.
Ali Jaffer, Global Head of Operations, Generation
Ali Jaffer is the Global Head of Operations for the Generation initiative. Prior to this role, Ali was an Associate Partner at McKinsey focused on the social sector. He holds an MBA from Harvard, Bachelor in Economics and Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Wharton / University of Pennsylvania.
'Gbénga Sèsan, Executive Director, Paradigm Initiative Nigeria
'Gbénga Sèsan is the Executive Director of Paradigm Initiative, a social enterprise that works on digital rights and digital inclusion in Africa. Originally trained as an electronic & electrical engineer at Obafemi Awolowo University, 'Gbénga completed executive education programs at Lagos Business School, New York Group for Technology Transfer, Oxford University, Harvard University, Stanford University, Santa Clara University, and the University of the Pacific. 'Gbénga has been named the Schwab Foundation Social Entrepreneur of the Year (2014), a CyberStewards Fellow, Crans Montana Forum Fellow, Archbishop Desmond Tutu Leadership Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, Our Common Future Fellow, and Cordes Fellow.
Rob Urquhart, Executive for Knowledge and Learning, Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator
Rob Urquhart is the Executive for Knowledge and Learning at Harambee Youth Employment Accelerator. He has twenty years of management consulting experience in the human capital discipline having worked for a bespoke South African firm as well as a global consulting firm in the course of his career. He leads Harambee’s knowledge and learning function and is responsible for showing how input realizes impact.