Securing employment means income for households.

Mock interviews, résumé writing, connecting with jobs in their communities — we are focused on developing young people’s workplace skills, which will help them be successful at their jobs and change their lives for good.

Why employment?

To have any hope of escaping poverty, income from stable work is essential.

That means kids need to grow up to have the skills that employers require. And with the benefit of other skills acquired through our programmes focused on education and empowerment, they’re on a good path. But there’s still work to do. That makes our focus on employment a vital tool to help break the cycle of poverty for generations to come.

How (specifically) does your support help kids?

Kids enrolled in YUVA’s programme have access to the just-right mix of resources based on location, age and life circumstances. 

Here are some of the ways we work to enable employment:

1. Linking youth to vocational training and university programmes in Mauritius, helping to guide them on a path that fits their interests, abilities and the likelihood to find work.
2. Awarding scholarships to attend primary school, college or other higher education institutions.
3. Ensuring that work-readiness activities, soft-skills development and job placement are part of our training programmes.
4. Providing career counsellors who teach interview techniques and conduct mock job interviews.
5. Counselling on résumé creation, lining up letters of recommendation and preparing other necessary documentation.
6. Guiding teens to resources like online career guidance, assessment in talents and career interests, and job listings.
7. Building relationships between YUVA staff and local employers and business organisations so we can help match teens to appropriate opportunities.

What gets measured?

(In other words, how do you know it’s working?)

“What gets measured gets done,” someone once said. (And we agree!) We work with Statistics Mauritius and independent auditors to measure specific results as part of our programme.

Employability means working to make sure the teens in our programme have adequate marketable job skills and know-how to enter the workforce. We measure the number of teens in our programme aged 18–24 who have:

1. Increased marketable skills, measured by the percent of teens actively developing skills through university or vocational training programmes. For younger teens, we measure enrollment. For young adults, we measure completion.
2. Enhanced access to the local job market, measured by the percent of programme youth (18- to 24-year-olds) who demonstrate knowledge and skills to access the job market in their communities.

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