How we’re helping motivate young entrepreneurs

We believe in the potential of youth. It’s why we’re working hard to improve their employability and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Nicaragua and Central America.

But, we’ve identified challenges to securing employment in Nicaragua, which is leading to the following:

• few youth accessing formal employment in Nicaragua
• a gender gap in employment with less women finding work

Of course, we strive to break barriers to education to improve young people’s well-being. So, I recently joined a panel discussion, showing how we’re working at Children Believe to help more youth create their own opportunities. Below are hot-button questions we covered:

What’s needed to generate a dynamic and innovative entrepreneurial landscape in Nicaragua, in Central America?

We need to understand the market, youth empowerment, bottom-up influence and gender equality. It helps that Children Believe has extensive experience working with families and communities, encouraging child protection, child participation and access to education.

To really get ahead, we must involve youth, especially women, in entrepreneurship and employability opportunities, as it’s especially hard for them to find permanent, full-time employment.

The good news is when a young person completes higher education, such as vocational training, the probability of accessing a formal job balances between men and women.

What’s most challenging for youth in the workforce, and how are we helping them overcome these issues?

I had a conversation with a young entrepreneur who answered this best. Motivation is the key to successful entrepreneurship, he said, adding, “Resist, persist and never give up.”

How can we help boost entrepreneurship, which combines social, economic and environmental impact in sustainable business (or triple-bottom line entrepreneurship)?

First, we must empower youth. Second, if we help create a quality workforce of young entrepreneurs, there will be value added to the private sector. Finally, it must be clear how we help develop the labour market. We do that by building values and competencies related to life and professional skills.

Ultimately, it’s essential to create a solid value proposition addressing gender equality to involve youth, the private sector, public institutions and communities. This ecosystem has the potential to co-create solutions where youth are agents for change. And, that’s exciting!