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The world is changing very fast. We are witnessing so many technological advancements which are bringing our world together and developing our economies. And yet, despite these great achievements all over the world, Malawi is still lagging in many development indicators including youth employment.  It is perhaps one of the worst of times in history to be a young person in Malawi. With over 85% of the population youths of below 35 years, youths continue to face a lot of social economic challenges that affect their contribution to society. The future looks bleak for an average Malawian young person.

According to the International Labor Organization report, Malawi’s unemployment rate stands at a whopping 21%. Government and other organisations are working hard to create jobs and deal with the unemployment issue. Providing employment alone is not enough, youths need a path to develop themselves, a means to build skills and capabilities for the long run.  Investment in human potential has a transformative effect not only for the youths but also for their families and communities. Data Sense proposes a work study approach to solving two challenges haunting Malawian youths today, high college tuition and unemployment.

Data Sense offers an intensive work-study program that allows youth to grow as they learn basic skills, develop technical capabilities and earn degrees that enable them to secure professional jobs when they graduate from our program. As a result, they and their families emerge from poverty. Data Sense’ aim is to create meaningful employment opportunities to help young people unlock their potential, develop their skills—and create better futures for themselves and their families.

This program will recruit out of  school youths, highly-motivated students from poor families, who are failing to pay college tuition and train them to perform digital work for companies and organisations, while offering them an opportunity to pay for their university degrees. The selected youths will undergo a training to develop data collection, digitization, management, analysis and visualization skills. Once training is complete, Data Sense will hire those who show promise to work as Data Management Operators in the program. They will be able to pay a portion of their tuition from their own earnings.