Darcy St Project

Our solution is to create a visual learning management system and barista skills training app to train and increase users employability, record and report student progress, show our impact on the students work status, and connect anyone from around the world to get a job.

Our solution aims to increase youth employability and confidence in the workplace. 75% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials by 2025. This demographic accounts for 34% of the current Australian workforce. Youth unemployment has averaged 13.5% in the past 12 months in Australia, more than twice the adult unemployment rate; nearly doubling since 2008, with around 300,000 youth now unemployed in Australia, accounting for over a third of total unemployment. This number is even higher in Western Sydney and regional areas.

Our visual learning management system and barista skills training app helps to train and increase users employability wherever they are in the world because the skills learnt are transferrable to any coffee shop or retail environment. The app also allows us to record and report student progress, show our impact on the students work status, and connect youth around the world to get a job. By making an easy to follow training series with how to videos and visual guides we can engage youth from varied backgrounds. With a vision to translate the app into other languages we can start with coffee as the common denominator and scale it to other regions.

Our solution affects change globally when we make practical and relevant education accessible to all. The processes and skills required to gain employment in a coffee shop are the same the world over, and by connecting people we build a network of students that are engaged and proficient in recognised and employable skills.

Youth unemployment has averaged 13.5% in the past 12 months in Australia, more than twice the adult unemployment rate; nearly doubling since 2008, with around 300,000 youth now unemployed in Australia, accounting for over a third of total unemployment. This number is even higher in Western Sydney and regional areas. The hospitality and tourism sector as a whole currently employs more than 255 million people around the globe, and it will create 73 million new jobs by 2022. Darcy St Project helps to educate and empower students to gain experience and enter the workforce with confidence anywhere in the world.

Based on Deloitte's Millennial Survey, 75% of the global workforce will be made up of millennials by 2025. This demographic accounts for 34% of the current Australian workforce. The sector is experiencing a shortfall of 56,000 workers. Employment growth in the cafe, restaurant and take away food services sector will require an additional 43,700 jobs by November 2018. The rate of employment growth in this sector is expected to be higher than any other sector in the Australian economy, growing at around 8.5%. Learning based confidence and social inclusion will decrease crime, poor mental health or radicalisation of youth.

Our impact is in the employability of people completing the training delivered through our app. Youth in urban and regional areas from low income families will benefit the most from our training. It will be deployed to them directly through the app store, through high schools and community organisations. The outcome is to bring our offline training capability online and scaled.

Track downloads in the app store - 5,000 people in Australia will download our app

Engage and run a pilot program with 5 high schools - 5 schools will use the app as a base level course

Track progress of students and employment status after completing training - 1000 students will go on to employment as a result of the app

We want to create a virtual environment that takes the students to a working coffee shop to experience everything they need to learn before stepping foot into a real café. Our solution provides a blueprint for students to learn practical skills that will help them get a job which is unlike any other app on the market.

Our solution uses technology to enrich and transform the lives of its students through understanding people and their needs. We're making our solution human-centered by making the training relevant and practical in a real world environment.  

To begin with we want to deliver our solution as an app direct to public or as a software as a service to be licenced by high schools and community organisations to reach the underserved communities that it aims to touch.  

With over 15 years of coffee and hospitality knowledge, we operate a working café, coffee roastery and work with RTO’s so we can offer nationally recognised training opportunities. As a social enterprise, all profits are put back into training and resources for our students. We are currently financially sustainable.

Money and expertise. With over 15 years of coffee and hospitality knowledge, we are confident in our ability to provide the relevant and practical content needed for the employers and employees to have an immediate impact however we don't have the capital or the expertise to develop our solution as a pilot and scale.

We are inspired by the possibility that Solve represents and the network that it would allow us to connect with. Solve allows us to join a community of leaders and change-makers who have the resources, the expertise, the mentorship, and the know-how to get our solution piloted, scaled, and implemented. www.darcystproject.com.au will continue to grow and affect change around the world with Solve's help.

We have partnered with over 50 organisations in bringing our solution as an offline offering to students to affect change. From high schools to community organisations and government or private businesses like Atlassian we continue to grow our partner network. We need to bring this online.

No known competitors in this space.