Our solution's stage of development:
EarlyOur solution:
The project equips youth/graduates with relevant working knowledge, practical skills, valuable attitudes and useful links to promote their lives/ initiatives. This helps generate useful practical solutions for families, communities, thus contributing to sustainable socio-economic growth. Trainees engage in hands-on practical leadership training, entrepreneurship, service delivery, organisational development and internship/job placement.
Our pitch:
The project uses hands-on transformative leadership training, entrepreneurship, effective service delivery and organisational development skills among others to equip the beneficiaries. The practical works/service related training enable beneficiaries to develop and use their creativity/ innovation /competence to identify problems, and creatively come out with useful solutions to help families and their communities. Thus providing strategic and unique practical skills training programmes aimed at equipping the youth and young graduates with relevant knowledge, useful practical life skills, appropriate attitudes/values and useful opportunities can shape and or reshape their lives, their communities and the society at large. Key among the positive social impacts that our unique project brings is that none of our trainees after completing the designed training successfully will look up to the society for solution or help rather they (beneficiaries) will collaboratively, constructively and creatively use their initiatives, competencies and skills they developed to generate useful practical solutions for their families and communities, thus helping to promote sustainable development.
Feasibility studies and careful scanning conducted on our environment (political or legal, economic, scientific and technological) revealed useful window of opportunity where strategic skills training programmes like ours could be used to empower the youth to identified socio-economic /development needs and address them. This will go a long way to promote sustainable development. From our first pilot programme rolled out, the project promises to equip our youths with relevant applicable skills that will help them serve in various capacities locally and internationally and hence enable our youth to contribute immensely with their huge energy to sustainable socio-economic development. This proves that if the project is scaled up, it will be beneficial to many families and communities locally, nationally and globally.
The problem:
The project is in response to the skill gap that exists in Ghanaian youth culminating in unemployment, (particularly among graduates) and inefficient service delivery in startup organisations. Lack of appropriate employable or service delivery skills dwindle the opportunity of people, families, organisations, communities and the nation as whole to succeed on sustainable basis. The project will thus, build the capacity of the trainee to identify and solve developmental problems for peoples and communities and contribute to sustainable socio-economic development.
Why our solution will solve the problem:
The project uses hands-on transformative leadership training, entrepreneurship, effective service delivery and organisational development skills among others to equip trainees with relevant work-life skills for service in various capacities. The practical works/service related training enable beneficiaries to develop and use their creativity/ innovation /competence to identify problems, and creatively come out with useful solutions to help themselves or their communities. The project provides technical supports to help grow trainees’ initiatives. Families, communities and larger society begin to benefit from the application of appropriate employable skills/useful solutions and socio-economic initiatives. Instead of being job seekers, trainees end up becoming job creators/employers/entrepreneurs.
Our target outcomes:
The project uses hands-on transformative leadership training, entrepreneurship, effective service delivery and organisational development skills among others to equip trainees with relevant work-life skills for service in various capacities. The practical works/service related training enable beneficiaries to develop and use their creativity/ innovation /competence to identify problems, and creatively come out with useful solutions to help themselves or their communities. The project provides technical supports to help grow trainees’ initiatives. Families, communities and larger society begin to benefit from the application of appropriate employable skills/useful solutions and socio-economic initiatives. Instead of being job seekers, trainees end up becoming job creators/employers/entrepreneurs.
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:
The project introduces dual system of school-based and work-based learning, combining both school and out of school skill building practices/learning techniques using encoded computer programmes/software in a self-instructional mode, making it easier and quicker for trainees to use with minimal assistance while building the required skills at their own pace particularly for those who are far from the proposed centre. With the introduction of smart phone everywhere, we are able to employ digital, mobile applications and the use of interactive computer models to empower our younger generation. Thus our training materials are usually in soft copies.
Why our solution is human-centered:
With the introduction of smart phone everywhere, we are able to employ digital, mobile applications and the use of interactive computer models to empower our younger generation. Thus our training materials are usually in soft copies. Those with little or no computer skills are also assisted gradually to grab the skill with time.We be we can bridge the digital divide through this programme with time.
How people will access our solution:
We use both print and electronic media. On advertisement, interested applicants can choose to send their applications/ inquiry by email through or any other means to the programme office. In order to support qualified trainees, partial scholarships (up to 70%-80% of total cost of training) are awarded to selected applicants through the benevolence of partner NGOs. The trainees will have to pay up the remaining 20 %-30% through flexible modes of payment. Depending on needs/ convenience, a trainee can choose to pay via the bank account of IDOI-CAST or other convenient methods as follows: monthly or per training session/ semester
Technology-Readiness Level:
6-8 (Demonstration)Our organization:
Non-ProfitHow we will sustain our team financially:
IDOI-CAST will initiate processes and mechanisms for creating effective systems and strategies for generating and managing local resources needed by the management team to carry out scheduled skills training activities and sustain the project after initial funding ceases. By-products resulting from training of practical skills like creative arts, fashion designing, and other vocational skills such as table cloths, napkins, artifacts, candles, etc would be branded and sold out particularly to raise funds to support the project. Also community resource mobilization on special occasion such as open day, durbars and festive periods would be used to support the project. Lastly the project would engage some of the trainees after graduation to support the project to take and deliver special orders on contract basis locally and internationally. This will be helpful to both beneficiaries and the project.
The factors limiting our success:
Though the project required about $30,000 start –up funding, it was difficult raising the amount. As such we depended on personal funds to run the pilot programme addition to other non-financial resources. Due to lack of funding we cut down the number of preselected applicants from 160 to about 6.
Our main challenge is infrastructure like laptops,tablets,and others to support the training programme.With some handsome initial funding,we hope to roll out this special programme wonderfully.
How long we have been working on our solution:
1 yearHow long it will take to develop a pilot:
We have already developed a pilot.How long it will take to scale beyond our pilot:
1-3 monthsOur expected annual budget:
$30000
How much of our budget we've secured to date:
$3000
We're looking for partners in these fields:
Why we're applying to Solve:
There is a growing need among the developing countries to promote sustainable socio-economic development among their citizenry. To address this need, it becomes important to empower the youthful actors with the requisite skills. Coming out with the idea to start IDOI-CAST, I need to participate in this special programme to gain the necessary support technically and financially to grow the project. Considering my background, I believe I can take full advantage of this programme to lead the project successfully. I hope to gain the needed support to build this project gradually beyond the boundaries of Ghana in the near future.
Our current partners:
Global Giving
Solution Team
-
KA
-
Mawuli Mensah Director, International Development Opportunity Initiative
to Top
Our Solution
IDOI-CAST