Watch insights from Kenya's youth participants
A systems-informed, earn-while-learning programme equipping financially disadvantaged youth with practical skills, seed capital, and market linkages to build dignified, sustainable work.
About the Programme
Youth@Work targets the fundamental gap between skills acquisition and economic opportunity. Participants move from ideation to first sales within weeks and months.
The programme is grounded in evidence from pilots in Kenya and South Africa, which showed that youth can develop sale-ready prototypes within two weeks when training is practical, contextual, and linked to real market demand.
Delivery is through 9 Youth-Led Organisations (YLOs), embedding capacity locally and ensuring long-term sustainability beyond the programme cycle.
01. Collaborative Innovation Design (CID) - 10-day intensive labs per cohort
02. Quarterly mentorship cycles and peer learning via the Youth in Systems Change Hub
03. Milestone-based micro-seed packages (seed funding in USD per venture team)
04. Market linkages: community showcases, buyer tests, procurement pilots
05. YLO sub-grants to strengthen local innovation hubs
06. Policy dialogues and foresight research for systemic adoption in TVET
Delivery Model
Adapted from MIT D-Lab's Creative Capacity Building approach, the Collaborative Innovation Design model blends participatory design, systems thinking, and lean prototyping; built for real markets and real constraints.
Participants begin by reframing their own potential. Trauma-informed facilitation and gender-responsive practices ensure inclusion of young women, refugees, and persons with disabilities.
User research and disciplined ideation ground participants in real community problems. Solutions are designed to be market-relevant and environmentally sustainable from the start.
Teams build using locally available or recycled materials. Ventures are tested through buyer conversations and cost studies, then refined for viability and scale.
A rules-based USD 300+ seed package unlocks only after readiness checks, enabling early first sales and proof of demand without creating dependency.
Post-training, youth access quarterly mentorship cycles and the Youth in Systems Change Hub, a digital platform with toolkits, webinars, and networking.
Community showcases, buyer tests, and procurement pilots connect youth ventures to real buyers, closing the training-to-income gap at the last mile.
Programme Countries