YOMA
Putting youth at the centre through individualised learning to earning pathways
Talent is universal, opportunities are not. Connecting young people to opportunities online can help them to grow, make an impact and thrive in the offline world. All of which can improve their employability, life prospects and overall well-being.
Launched in July 2020, Yoma is a digital marketplace where youth can build their futures by actively engaging in social impact tasks as well as learning to earning opportunities. Personal growth is incentivized with digital tokens that can be swapped for digital services or physical goods. And young people’s successes are recorded on a verifiable digital CV, for sharing with potential employers.
Yoma seeks to respond to the unemployment and well-being crisis by opening up opportunities to all young people – not just the better off. The platform offers concrete pathways from learning to earning that build young people’s skills and connect them to livelihoods. Pathways are tailored to the individual and align opportunities with the young person’s goals and potential as well as market demands.
Youth account for 60 per cent of all of Africa’s jobless. To compete locally and globally, young people must be equipped with a set of skills and competencies to meet the labour market’s changing needs. Young Africans developed the concept of the Yoma platform to both address these challenges and increase youth agency across the globe.
Yoma contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals by engaging young people in local impact tasks in exchange for digital tokens.
How it works
The Yoma platform identifies and enables hidden talents by organizing challenges for young people to obtain skills that will help them secure internships and employment.
Yoma creates an ecosystem of opportunities through its network and collaboration with both youth and partners. Yoma builds upon and leverages the large footprint of UNICEF, GenU and GIZ and works with employers and learning and volunteering partners to give young people a range of options.
Central to the Yoma platform is the concept of youth agency, giving young people the chance to align opportunities with their aspirations. A high value is also placed on peer-to-peer learning and mentoring. Young people’s needs and well-being are always at the fore, and youth continue to shape how the platform is run.
The open source platform is freely accessible, designed for scale and can be used around the globe in line with local needs.
Digital platforms can help to open up opportunities for young people at scale. Yoma connects young people with social impact tasks as well as learning to earning opportunities to help them gain skills and build their futures.