Empowering the Future Workforce

With the support from trainers from a local CSO, Salesianos de Dom Bosco Angola, the pilot is covering the following areas:

1. Connectivity and Digital Access: ensuring young people, especially girls in peri-urban and rural areas, have access to basic digital skills, digital business tools, and e-commerce solutions, strengthening their operations and capabilities.
2. Future-Oriented Skills: The project is testing a compendium of practical management, business, and entrepreneurial skills co-created with the private sector. This initiative aims to increase job opportunities and skills for youth involved in agriculture-value chain businesses.

The project's activities started with the establishment of a training space, equipped with basic materials to feel like a learning space. The second phase included the co-design of a comprehensive training program through community assessments and workshops including great participation from start-ups and private sector companies that have relevant work and connection with rural youth and the agri-food value-chains. At this stage, the trainers are delivering training to 20 young people, with 80% of them being women. These young participants are gaining essential digital skills, business acumen, and entrepreneurship expertise, setting them on a path towards a brighter future.

Learning at the center

We are approaching this initiative by looking at knowledge, attitudes, and practices, so we did a pre-assessment before the training and will do another one at the end. Additionally, we will also be looking at key hypothesis to test and key learning questions to explore. We will make efforts to explore insights from interviews, human interest stories and journey mapping to have a significant overlapping of information that will eventually be relevant to understand the system and the positive and negative implications of the training program. This flexible approach is enabling the project team to adapt and refine training components and methodologies according to the community's needs and feedback.

Despite limited access to desktop computers or laptops, most participants possess basic cell phones and smartphones with internet access, highlighting the significance of mobile devices in their daily lives, particularly in areas where traditional computers are less common. Gender-based disparities are evident, with a notable percentage of women not using computers, while men exhibit a more varied distribution in computer usage. In mobile phone skills, women tend to have higher confidence, but both genders exhibit significant gaps in software and internet-related challenges. The gender divide is also felt in the attendance and participation in the training. Many young girls between 19 to 25 years old have month old babies that they need to bring to the class, while others are forced skip training sometimes due to childcare duties. While the pilot does not include dedicated childcare support, in future iterations this is critical to ensure equal access to training. 

Internet access is a crucial issue, with half of the participants relying on limited mobile data and others lacking access at home or work/school. This underscores the importance of affordable and widespread connectivity. The analysis of gender and technological skills reveals that women excel in specific areas but have fewer diverse skills compared to men. Both genders exhibit shortcomings in advanced skills, underscoring the need for accessible learning resources and support for all.

The most common use of mobile phones is photography, with most participants mentioning that they take pictures every day or at least twice a week. Most participants use Facebook daily and some also use Whatsapp often, indicating that they are familiar and comfortable with communication platforms and social networks. This may reflect the importance of social communication and networking in their daily lives. However, the main reason behind the preference for Facebook is that it is currently free to use in the country not requiring data. 

However, tools like Microsoft Word and Excel are less frequently used, suggesting a need to enhance digital literacy and productivity software skills, especially in agriculture-related businesses.

This analysis underscores the importance of inclusive training and digital inclusion programs to bridge skill gaps and empower individuals to effectively use technology and digital tools across various contexts. While participants have basic skills in common communication and social networking apps, they lack knowledge and usage of productivity and design tools. There's a recognition of technology's potential for personal and professional improvement, coupled with a willingness to learn. Therefore, hands-on training and educational programs focusing on these areas and fostering continuous learning might enhance participants' overall digital competency.