Youth, Skills, & the Workforce of the Future
JobHack: Learn How To Create Your Own Job
By JobHack.org
Our solution's stage of development:
GrowthOur solution:
JobHack teaches young unemployed people in developing countries the digital enterprise skills required to create their own job. This is done through a completely free online course made up five challenges, utilising a project-based-learning methodology. JobHack aims to be the most scalable and accessible solution to youth unemployment globally.
Our pitch:
JobHack is a free online course for young people around the world to learn the practical skills required to create their own jobs, be that becoming freelancer, starting a small business, a social enteprise or a startup.
From day one our mission has been to create the most scalable and accessible free online education as a means of addressing youth unemployment around the world.
The course itself utilises a project based learning methodology which has been proven to have the best outcomes in students. It’s made up five challenges, each challenge imparting a new skill onto the student that can be used in the creation of their own job. Every student that completes JobHack receives a certificate of completion and can join our alumni group. But by far the most important outcome that we measure is the self efficacy and mindset transformation of our students.
To date, within just 6 months, we’ve had over 17,000 students from 196 countries sign up for JobHack. The majority of these students are young women from developing countries like India, Phillipines, Nigeria, Kenya, Pakistan & Bangledesh. We’ve collected data from each of these students about their individual context and drive.
We’ve done all this with next to no money and we are now building the next version of our product with more features based on the feedback of our students so far. We are obsessed with the mission of scaling this to millions of students across the world over the next 5 years.
The problem:
There are two parts to the problem;
Scale: Enterprise education programs are expensive to scale (usually delivered face to face) and are generally inaccessible by the young people who would most benefit from them. Following the success of models like KhanAcademy & CodeAcademy we seek to develop the best possible free online education to create the biggest impact possible across the world.
Outcomes: The most crucial outcome for young unemployed people going through JobHack is an entrepreneurial mindset and a sense of self-efficacy. We build this through a free course made up challenges, each challenge imparting a new enterprise skill.
Why our solution will solve the problem:
Within 6 months of launching our second version of the course 17,000+ young people from 196 countries signed up to do JobHack (primarily young women in developing countries).
Day to day we see the course finishers posting in our online alumni group evidence of how the course has caused them to develop an entrepreneurial mindset.
85% of students surveyed that have completed the course have stated that they now feel more confident in being able to create their own job.
Our target outcomes:
The impact of JobHack scaling across the world is the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, self efficacy & enterprise skills in millions of young unemployed people in developing countries.
The people who will benefit most are young unemployed people aged 16 to 30 in places where youth unemployment is highest. Governments and society overall will benefit from stronger local economies and less talent loss through immigration.
We have acquired all of our existing 17,000+ students directly through Facebook advertising at a cost of 4 cents per student. Total marketing spend to date: $680 AUD.
How we will measure our progress:
The populations we will benefit initially:
The regions we will benefit initially:
The technologies we employ:
Why our solution is unique:
JobHack is unique in 3 ways;
- Our online course will always free & online to ensure scalability and accessibility
- We employ a project-based-learning methodology to ensure the best possible outcomes for our students
- Our messaging to young people is 'Learn How To Create Your Own Job', this has tested well with our initial audience and is what young people actually want.
Why our solution is human-centered:
The design and development of JobHack has been shaped by our user interviews with young unemployed people from our target countries since the founding of the organisation in 2016. Everyday we have more than 100 young unemployed people sign up to take the JobHack challenges, we capture feedback from there before and after the course, ensuring we are always building new features with our students in mind.
How people will access our solution:
The best of JobHack will always be 100% free & online to ensure that we meet our mission of being the most scalable and accessible solution to youth unemployment around the world.
We have found the most cost effective and scalable way of promoting JobHack to our target audience is through Facebook advertising and Google adwords. We know the exact cost of scaling JobHack to one million students ($40,000 AUD in advertising spend).
Technology-Readiness Level:
9 (Commercial)Our organization:
For-ProfitHow we will sustain our team financially:
Our revenue to date:
2016: received a grant from the Victorian government in Australia to develop the minimum viable product and run a pilot with young Victorians.
2017: 3 impact investors came on board to help us build version 3 and scale our audience to young people in 196 countries.
2018: We will introduce an optional paid upgrade for students who wish to take further challenges and learn more enterprise skills through JobHack.
The factors limiting our success:
- Can we scale our student acquisition channels to reach our student number goals?
- Can we maintain a high completion rate of the course?
- Can we ensure that each student who completes JobHack realises the outcomes that we set out for them to achieve (ie mindset + skills)
How long we have been working on our solution:
2 yearsHow long it will take to develop a pilot:
We have already developed a pilot.How long it will take to scale beyond our pilot:
We have already scaled beyond pilot.Our expected annual budget:
$159000
How much of our budget we've secured to date:
$79000
We're looking for partners in these fields:
Why we're applying to Solve:
For us to succeed in achieving our mission we need to learn from and work with people and organisations that are obsessed with solving the same global challenges that we are. If we can become a Solver we will seek to learn from and work with as many of the Solve members as possible to further our impact.
Our current partners:
Global Centre for Youth Employment - http://gcyerti.com/
Foundation for Young Australians - http://fya.org.au/
LaunchVic - https://launchvic.org/
Solution Team
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Mr Nathan Murphy CEO & Founder, JobHack
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Our Solution
JobHack: Learn How To Create Your Own Job