How are youth employment programs dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and adapting their content and delivery models to ensure continued support to youth beneficiaries? Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) wanted to find out. So in the past few months, we’ve been in touch with our Impact Portfolio (IP) project partners, a community of practice of 44 innovative youth employment programs implemented by our partner organizations.
In our new S4YE Knowledge Brief, “How are Youth Employment programs adapting to COVID-19?,” we discuss six key trends we observed in the programs operated by our IP partners in response to COVID.
1. Accelerating remote learning
Organizations have modified their classroom content into more 'bite-sized,' self-paced, engaging learning modules. Visa, for example, is developing short bite-sized videos to provide essential highlights on topics within its financial literacy courses (like Practical Money Skills) to capture the attention of youth accessing the information on mobile phones. These videos direct users to other resources to obtain more in-depth information on a topic.
Additionally, IP partners have scaled mobile apps, SMS platforms, and radio programs to accelerate remote learning in rural communities for those who do not have access to computers. Harambee, a social enterprise from South Africa, is working with the United Nations to create data-light (less than 10MB) mobile courses for vulnerable populations like refugee youth. And Educate!, a nonprofit tackling unemployment in Africa, converted its educational programs to radio lesson scripts to be taught on local radio stations to reach communities with low broadband connectivity.
2. Scaling virtual operations
S4YE IP partners have transitioned operations to virtual formats for staff by increasing investment in technology tools, providing capacity-building support, and adapting HR policies to recognize off-site work. S4YE partner Accenture, a professional services company, has developed the Virtual Ways of Working Playbook, which offers practical advice to help nonprofits worldwide adapt to working virtually. ÁNIMA, an education company from Uruguay, is integrating artificial intelligence to automate processes like candidate selection for its work study program.