Website
http://www.experienceeducate.org/
Countr(ies)
Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya.
Grade Level of Students Participating
Secondary School Students
Number of Students Participating per Year
Educate! has scaled its impact to over 40,000 secondary students in Uganda, Rwanda and Kenya, and are broadly reaching more than half a million youth. In 2018, Educate! launched its first pilot program in over 60 Kenyan schools in close partnership with the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
Year Organization Began
2009
Relationship to the public education system
Educate! directly implements its model in secondary schools and partners with governments to support national education systems.
Organization’s Vision and Mission
Purpose: Preparing youth in Africa with the skills to succeed in today’s economy.
Mission: To develop young leaders and entrepreneurs in Africa.
Brief Description of Program Activities
Educate! tackles youth unemployment by reforming what schools teach and how they teach it, so that students in Africa have the skills to start businesses, get jobs and drive development in their communities.
Educate! believes that by transforming secondary education we can equip youth with the skills to disrupt the systemic problem of youth unemployment. Educate!’s experiential model teaches the “hard skills” of business including planning, budgeting, savings and market research. Educate! complements these skills with the “soft skills” demanded most by both employers and students themselves, such as teamwork, public speaking, networking, critical thinking, self-confidence and creativity.
Educate! works with three education stakeholders to create sustainable change:
- Governments: Educate! works hand-in-hand with governments to support adoption and roll-out of skills-based education reforms.
- Schools & Teachers: Educate! partners with existing secondary schools and trains teachers on skills-based curricula and student-centered experiential teaching techniques.
- Students: Students use the skills they learn to get a job, start a business, and succeed in work and life.
Two rigorous external evaluations, including a randomized controlled trial, found that graduates of the Educate! program earn DOUBLE the income of their peers and are 44% more likely to launch a business. Girls achieve even greater results. Girls earn 244% more than their peers who did not complete the program and have a 91% increase in business ownership.
Program Content: Intrapersonal Competencies
Creativity, initiative, resilience, self-awareness, confidence, social responsibility, grit
Program Content: Interpersonal Competencies
Problem solving, critical thinking, networking and relationships, opportunity identification, project management, public speaking, teamwork, resource mobilization, presentation
Program Content: Cognitive Competencies
Budgeting and bookkeeping, business planning, product making, health skills, researching, savings, market research, financial literacy
Program Content: Attitudes and Values
Social responsibility is a continuous thread throughout the program, both through teaching content on topics such as the environment, poverty, fighting corruption, ethical leadership, health, and gender issues, as well as through experience giving back to the community such as annual Community Days. Perhaps the best evidence of the effectiveness of the Educate! model at creating socially responsible leaders is the number of graduates who become volunteer Mentors to Scholars, giving back to other students the experience from which they benefited.
Program Content: Pedagogy/Active Engagement of Students
In Uganda and Rwanda, students gain the experience of starting a student business club and recruiting approximately 60 other students to join their business club. The student business club is the primary experiential platform for students to build on their business and employability skills that will enable them to meet the demands of the labor market or create their own jobs if that market fails them. In the final term, students prepare for the annual National Student Business competition, organized by Educate!, which enables them to build on business they have learned like public speaking and presentation.
Additional Notes
In addition to directly implementing the Educate! model in schools, Educate! partners with governments who share the organization’s vision for skills-based education that can prepare youth for the labor market. Educate! advises national governments on curriculum design, teacher training initiatives, and school management practices to ensure that students graduate with the skills they need to get jobs, start businesses, and drive national development.
Educate!’s vision for 2024 is to measurably impact 1 million students, and reach 4 million students more broadly, across Africa each year. Long term, Educate! aims to fully incorporate its skills-based education model into national education systems across Africa.