FutureYolk

FutureYolk is an online platform for youths to develop digital skills, explore vocations and build career portfolios grounded with real-world experience. It aims to improve employability of poor urban youths so that they are able to participate effectively in the future digital economy and escape the poverty trap.

With limited access to quality education and skills development opportunities, poor urban youths in developed cities have low employability and mainly engage in low-skilled and low-value employment. With growing automation and digitalisation, these jobs are rapidly being displaced. Strong competition for jobs fueled by the globalised economy means that it is harder for these youths to secure quality employment required to help them escape the poverty trap. We want to change this reality with FutureYolk!

FutureYolk represents the start of a new life, filled with immense potential for growth and exciting possibilities for the future ahead.

FutureYolk is an online platform for youths to develop digital skills, explore vocations and build career portfolios grounded with real-world experience. It comprises three main elements: (i) FutureFinder, a self-discovery toolkit coupled with mentoring to help youths discover their individual unique value propositions; (ii) FutureSkills, a curated curriculum and pool of real-world projects focusing on growing business needs, e.g. social media and content marketing, data analysis, user experience design, market research and visual design; and (iii) FutureGo, which allows youths to apply skills learnt for paid co-creation challenges and independent work. Personalised career portfolio also showcases platform-validated execution skills and boost credibility of these youths.

To ensure accessibility of our solution, we will offer sponsorship of learning opportunities based on a cross-subsidy model with revenue from paying youth applicants, work with local organisations for sharing of hardware and software resources, and scope projects catering to the varying education and skill levels of youths. 

By improving employability of youths through empowering them with relevant market-driven skills for the digital economy, and instilling in them creativity, collaboration skills, and confidence to pursue their aspirations, we believe FutureYolk will enable poor urban youths to participate effectively in the future digital economy and eventually escape the poverty trap.

With limited access to quality education and skills development opportunities, poor urban youths in developed cities have low employability and mainly engage in low-skilled and low-value employment. With growing automation and digitalisation, these jobs are rapidly being displaced. Strong competition for jobs fueled by the globalised economy means that it is harder for these youths to secure quality employment required to help them escape the poverty trap.

We want to improve employability of poor urban youths in developed cities to enable them to participate effectively in the future digital economy and eventually escape the poverty trap. 

FutureYolk will allow youths to achieve these outcomes with 21st century skills required for them to be future-ready:

(i) Confidence with better understanding of own strengths and values;

(ii) Creativity in problem solving and capacity to adapt across diverse contexts;

(iii) Relevant, market-driven skills for the digital economy.

Track responses from survey integrated with our online platform, as well as review of Individual Development Plan - 50% of youths report increase in confidence with a better understanding of their strengths and values

Track responses from survey integrated with our online platform, as well as review of Individual Development Plan - 50% of youths report development of creative problem-solving skills and increased capacity to adapt across diverse contexts

Track from platform analytics - 250 real-life projects completed through the platform within the first 3 years of our operations

FutureYolk is an integrated online platform that allows poor urban youths to develop digital skills, explore vocations and build marketable career portfolios showcasing their Education, Experience, and Execution abilities. It features: 

(i) Curated real-life projects with varying skill levels targeted at emerging/growing business needs of the future digital economy;

(ii) Customisable skills-based online learning curriculum as a cost-effective and scalable way to support effective project execution;

(iii) Individual development plan and mentoring to encourage accountability and follow-through;

(iv) Local partnerships with organisations to enable access to hardware and software for execution of digital projects.

Through our interactions with youths, we uncovered insights that disadvantaged youths often lack savvy digital competencies, experience/track record and soft skills for them to secure good work opportunities. We will involve these youths to co-create outreach strategies and test the product across various stages of development to ensure content is accessible to them and can be scaled for inclusion. Through our online platform, we will help equip them with these skills, build their career portfolios to market their work and optimise opportunities for their aspirations.   

We will address challenges faced by poor urban youths in accessing our solution through the following:

(i) Lack of financial resources: We will adopt a cross-subsidy model whereby part of the revenue from paying youth applicants will be used to sponsor learning opportunities for disadvantaged youths.

(ii) Low education and skill levels: Projects will be scoped such that it caters to varying skill levels, allowing youths to gradually build competency and confidence.  

(iii) Lack of access to equipment and software required for performing digital work: We will partner local organisations in providing shared access of these to youths.  

To keep costs low, we will keep our day jobs in the research and initial pilot phase so we won’t be drawing salaries from the venture at this stage. After we have validated our minimal viable prototypes, one of us will work on the venture full time and draw a stipend during pilot phase to cover basic living expenses. We will channel funds for contracted product development cost as we iterate for a product-market fit. We will concurrently apply for other grant funding and channel resources to further the solution’s development and expanding user base following pilot. At the same time, we will seek to pursue market-based revenue streams to improve financial sustainability. After we have established positive traction to be ready to scale across markets, we will be seeking investments to build the team.

We will need to continuously ensure that we stay relevant and stand out from existing competitors. User adoption by both companies and youths will be our main initial hurdle. The key challenges will be creating enough awareness and demand for our platform by having suitable projects from companies to attract youths while ensuring a decent quality of work from the youths, as well as securing a pool of patient and dedicated mentors passionate about empowering and guiding youths in their personal and professional development. Ensuring that the disadvantaged youths stay motivated through the training process will be especially challenging.

Being part of the vibrant and passionate Solve community looking to spread positive energy and effect change across the world is an experience we really look forward to! We hope to learn from relevant experienced industry practitioners through mentorship and get feedback from the Solve community about our venture. We also hope to meet like-minded individuals/organisations who share our dream and would be interested to join our team or partner us to implement the solution. Lastly, as this solution involves significant upfront investment, we are seeking for grants to fund our pilot and growth stage.

We do not have any partners currently.

Qlc.io, Glints, Upwork, Fiverr, Freelancer.com