Unleashing the Potential of Jamaican Youth through Empowerment & Training (JET)

Jamaica
Project under implementation

Description

Aiming to increase and strengthen youth’s labor skills to enhance their career opportunities, this multi-donor project, implemented in collaboration with the IDB Lab, will train 1,000 youth in digital, entrepreneurial, and soft skills. The project will focus on young people between 17-34 years old who are unemployed or underemployed.  

The implementation methodology consists of the development of an innovative AI tool to assess the skills, knowledge, and experience commonly required by employers and businesses in Jamaica; develop and offer of training programs tailored according to the highest demanded skills that respond to real-time labor market needs; and connect trained youth with jobs, local freelancing opportunities or support them to develop new entrepreneurial ventures.  

The execution of this project implies coordinating and collaborating with local business groups, trade associations, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), government institutions, and civil society to support the long-term continuity of the project’s goals. 

 

Project purpose

Re-skilling and up-skilling youths from vulnerable communities and enhancing their digital, entrepreneurial, and life skills to catalyze the growth of the digital economy. This objective will be achieved by offering beneficiaries quality training and teaching them to use their skills to seek employment opportunities from private sector enterprises as independent freelancers or entrepreneurs.  

Are you an SME or Organization that would like to join the project? Register here

Project goals

Enhance the digital and soft skills of low-income unemployed and under-employed youths.

Connect beneficiaries with employment and entrepreneurial opportunities.

Structure

1
Connecting youth with employment and income opportunities.

Develop digital tools and methodologies to provide real-time assessment of the labor and digital skills sought by SMEs, through coordination and consultation with public and private sector stakeholders, SMEs, and training service providers. This needs assessment will be a key input into the design of the curricula offered to the beneficiaries. 

2
Develop and implement digital and soft skills training program.

Deliver relevant digital skills training to beneficiaries with a sectorial approach and prioritizing the lower-income youths and participants from vulnerable communities in Jamaica that traditionally record high levels of poverty and unemployment.  

3
Labor market assessment of demand and supply of digital skills using Artificial Intelligence tools.

Develop digital tools and methodologies to provide real-time assessment of the labor and digital skills sought by SMEs, through coordination and consultation with public and private sector stakeholders, SMEs, and training service providers. This needs assessment will be a key input into the design of the curricula offered to the beneficiaries. 

Strategic partners

Donor
Donor
Donor
Donor
Strategic Partner
Local partner
Local partner
Steering Committee
Steering Committee
Steering Committee
Steering Committee
Which of the following SDGS (Sustainable Development Goals) this project support?