Non-profit youth development organisations can now tap into a web-basedlearning and engagement resource tool to enhance their initiatives.
This is according to Dion Shango, PwC Africa CEO, speaking at the launch of the YoMobi platform.
YoMobi was unveiled yesterday by collaborating partners PwC, UNICEF South Africa and social enterprise Capacitate, to commemorate this year’s youth month.
Developed by Capacitate, the platform provides youth organisations with their own technology toolkit to enhance their programmes to address the youth unemployment challenge.
It allows them to create their own micro-learning and engagement activities directly through the management console and deploy them to a mobile app that is accessed by youth.
Shango explained the platform has been built to support existing initiatives and provide youth development organisations with a tool to enhance their outcomes.
The platform is an effort to bridge the global skills gap, said the CEO, adding it’s an opportunity to equip youth with the skills, knowledge and tools they need to be digitally-fit in an uncertain future.
“South Africa faces a myriad of challenges in terms of preparing for our new world of work. Therefore, PwC South Africa, UNICEF and Capacitate, through the use of best-in-class technologies and emerging smart technologies, are working harder to improve overall chances of employability for our youth and making sure we foster an entrepreneurial spirit for young disadvantaged people in our country.”
The South African office of PwC has been working on collaborating with UNICEF since 2020, he noted. “This collaboration has given us an opportunity to roll out meaningful programmes and initiatives to digitally upskill young people in communities where the need is greatest in our country.”
Muriel Mafico, deputy representative at UNICEF South Africa, who also attended the launch event, stated that YoMobi seeks to connect existing platforms rather than compete with them.
“YoMobi is just an addition to a very rich ecosystem…building on the gaps that are there. It’s about complementing and making sure we leverage the existing platforms and make that seamless transition between systems and platforms.”
In terms of how it works, an NPO must first register on the platform to gain access for the organisation. Once the registration has been approved, the NPO can start setting up what is called its “YoMobi instance”.
Once this has been set up, the organisation will receive a unique access code to log in to its own management console to create micro-learning courses, upload learning and work opportunities, create events and chat sessions, as well as set digital and community service tasks for youth participants.
This will be followed by the onboarding of youth participants, who will be able to download a mobile app from the Play Store or App Store, register, enter the unique organisational access code and start interacting.
“The app is intended to benefit youth who are affiliated to various NPOs, where they will be able to access these resources,” according to PwC.
While access to the YoMobi platform is currently not zero-rated, PwC stated conversations are ongoing to have it zero-rated in the future.
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