Educate!

💥Last year, Educate! impacted 133,320 youth in Africa. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐨𝐭𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝟑𝟗𝟎,𝟎𝟎𝟎, marking a 1,000-fold increase since we first launched over a decade ago! Read the highlights in our 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟑 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭, out now: https://lnkd.in/evyH3m5D 👉🏿 We scaled our education reform and teacher training model nationwide in Rwanda, as well as strengthening partnerships with governments in Tanzania and Kenya. 👉🏿 We refined the impact of our livelihood bootcamps for out-of-school youth, focusing on increasing young women’s agency. 👉🏿 We supported youth to become gender equity and climate advocates. Thanks to our partners and champions. With your help, we'll keep building on this work! 🚀 Learn more about how we're scaling our impact and about the inspiring youth creating a brighter future: https://lnkd.in/evyH3m5D

🚨 Join us 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐟𝐞𝐰 𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬 for a special World Bank webinar: 𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠. Our CEO Boris Bulayev, Regional Director of Partnerships Kamanda Kamiri, and Group Strategist Diana Mwai will discuss strategies for transforming secondary education systems, focusing on making the most of every dollar invested. 🗓️ 𝗧𝗢𝗗𝗔𝗬 🕘𝟗–𝟏𝟎:𝟑𝟎 𝐚𝐦 𝐄𝐓 | 𝟓–𝟔:𝟑𝟎 𝐩𝐦 𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐤: https://lnkd.in/eSYHv62B For many years, our approach to secondary education reform focused on supporting governments to co-design and roll out a single, employment-focused subject. The idea was that going deep on one subject was the most cost-effective, achievable, and impactful way to improve how national secondary education prepares youth for employment. We've recently shifted our view. We now think there is an even more narrow action that can drive deep and sustained impact through the system. That action is 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐣𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐬. We've been working on exactly this with the government in Rwanda. With partners, we helped build a continuous assessment data system that has been rolled out nationally. And this year, we're supporting the government to roll out and embed project-based assessment across four mandatory national subjects. In the years to come, we hope to do the same in Tanzania. We hope you’ll join us to hear more!

Very excited to deliver this webinar to the World Bank tomorrow at 5 pm EAT/9 am EST. It's open to the public if anyone is interested! At Educate!, we really believe that you create the most scalable impact by picking the point of greatest leverage, and then going as deep as possible on it. For many years, our approach to secondary education reform focused on supporting governments to co-design and roll out a single, employment focused subject. The idea was that most reforms fail and that going deep on one labor market relevant subject was the most cost-effective, achievable and impactful way to improve how national secondary education prepares youth for employment. Here is our SSIR piece about that: https://lnkd.in/dc8wzFbw We've recently shifted our view. We now think there is an even more narrow action that can drive deep AND sustained impact through the system, which governments actually want. That action is PROJECTS. It's really hard to measure skills. Yet every competency-based curriculum (CBC) reform aims to build practical, employment skills. Projects (done right) are the LEADING indicator of skill development (e.g. you can see whether students are doing projects and the quality of those projects way before you get an exam result, and can consequently make tweaks to improve). And we wonder whether projects and project-based assessment are the best anchor to a successful CBC reform. We've been working on exactly this with the government in Rwanda. With partners, we helped build a continuous assessment data system that has been rolled out nationally (read on GPE blog: https://lnkd.in/dvHtj7v6). And this year, we're supporting the government to roll out and embed project-based assessment across four mandatory national subjects. In the years to come, we hope to do the same in Tanzania.  We're not sure where this will go but think this idea has a lot of promise. I've always been taught that systems change requires distilling the behavior you want down to the simplest action possible (thank you Kevin Starr The Bridgespan Group Abe Grindle Tim Hanstad and others). It took us 8 years to figure that out in Rwanda, but after many cycles of test-learn-adapt (https://lnkd.in/ddR-c6RT), we finally got to something that seems simple enough. Lots to learn, but this has been a big breakthrough for us. #EducationReform #WorkforceReadiness #ProjectBasedLearning #CompetencyBasedCurriculum #AfricaEducation #SkillsForTheFuture

📣🌍 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑩𝒍𝒐𝒈 𝑨𝒍𝒆𝒓𝒕! As a data-driven organization, we’ve developed systems and processes to test our impact in real time – evaluating elements like program schedules and startup capital. This lets us understand what works best for youth before scaling. In an article for Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), Hannah Ornas, Phillip Okull and Meghan Mahoney explain how Educate! uses agile evaluation methodologies to build and iterate on solutions for greater impact. Our approach enables us to continuously refine solutions to maximize impact, leading to significant improvements in youth outcomes, such as: 💰graduates of our in-school model in Uganda earning nearly double the income of peers by the end of secondary school. 📈consistent impact from our bootcamps for out-of-school youth with participants achieving relative income gains of 50% or more, three to six months after participation. 🔗 Learn more in the blog: “𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻, 𝗔𝗱𝗮𝗽𝘁: 𝗠𝗮𝘅𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝗧𝗵𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗻𝘂𝗼𝘂𝘀 𝗥𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗱 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻.” https://lnkd.in/gCW2eHz5 #RapidImpactAssessment #DataDrivenDecisions #DataDrivenResults #DevelopmentImpact #EvaluationFrameworks #MonitoringandEvaluation #OutOfSchoolYouth #ProgramDesign #ContinuousEvaluation

I deeply enjoyed my time at the African Philanthropy Forum in Marrakech. Two highlights: 1) A very fun panel on The Role of Philanthropy in Revolutionizing Education in Africa (https://lnkd.in/ds4rsdiE). I learned a lot from everyone who participated. I also shared a few messages/ideas, which we've been thinking about for some time. Please share any feedback! - Education is a legacy solution and most views people hold on education are based on the education they got 20-30 years ago. What holds education back is that we are not designing for the constraints of the world today, but rather trying to replicate the education that many of us got. - Time does not equal quality. We think that time in school and length of education leads to results. But as many models, including our livelihood bootcamps, show short and highly relevant experiences can be disproportionately impactful (https://lnkd.in/ei2dvWKd). - We have to both be idealistic and brutally pragmatic. We’re often just idealistic. We absolutely should aspire to give every child the same education we’d give to our own children. AND at least in an African context, we are so far from a resource perspective from getting there. And by pushing for the value, in practice we get to a highly inequitably outcome - a few get it all, and many get nothing. 2) Getting to connect on a much deeper level with a few really engaging humans on topics completely unrelated to the above, ranging from the immigrant experience to being a parentified child to labor migration. Thank you Mosun Layode for including me and the entire African Philanthropy Forum team for a memorable few days in Morocco. #APF2024 #APF24

📖 Programs serving out-of-school youth can face unique challenges in both program design and scaling. In a guest post on the J-PAL blog, staff from Educate! share how their Rapid Impact Assessment system allows them to test, learn, and adapt programs in real-time, ensuring interventions are informed with rigorous evidence and impactful from the get-go. Learn more about Educate!’s approach: https://lnkd.in/gCW2eHz5 Thanks to the authors of this blog, Hannah Ornas, Phillip Okull, and Meghan Mahoney.

🚀 African Philanthropy Forum Conference Educate! CEO and Co-founder, Boris Bulayev, will speak next week at the 𝐀𝐏𝐅 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐨, sharing insights on "𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐨𝐥𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐩𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐳𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚.” The session will explore how targeted investment can transform and reimagine education, and expand learning and economic opportunity to the millions of young people unable to access traditional education. 🗓 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐎𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟖 🕒 𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞: 𝟏𝟎:𝟎𝟎 - 𝟏𝟏:𝟎𝟎 𝐀𝐌 📍 𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐜𝐡, 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐨𝐜𝐜𝐨 Boris will join education leaders and innovators from the Education Development Center, Geneva Global, Mozilla Foundation and Alliance For Women and Girls. 👉 Learn more: https://lnkd.in/dXpzts8b #APF2024 #APF24

Excited to speak at the African Philanthropy Forum gathering next week! Looking forward to sharing our thoughts about building alternative education to employment pathways for the 50% of youth in Africa left out of secondary school. Such a big gap in education today!

Celebrating a milestone: Graduation of our Master Trainers. We believe in equipping educators with skills to lead the front, ensuring that every youth is prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. These Master Trainers will multiply that impact. These incredible individuals have gone through rigorous training and there commitment is nothing short of inspiring. As they step out, they will be catalysts for change and creating transformative learning environments.Together we are unlocking potential of the future leaders.

🚀 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝟐𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐧𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐜𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐧 𝐋𝐚𝐠𝐨𝐬, 𝐍𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐚.   Join us as our Chief Product Officer, Missy Mwendwa Kago shares insights on this year's theme, "𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒖𝒄𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝑯𝒂𝒓𝒅.” She will discuss Educate!’s product-led approach to creating solutions for youth unemployment and highlight how understanding users' needs, rigorous testing, and iteration can maximize impact. 🗓️𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: October 15 📍𝐋𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧: Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, Nigeria 🎟️𝐓𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬: https://lnkd.in/eJUf9kHT Missy Mwendwa leads product development for Educate!'s livelihood bootcamps, designed to equip young women in rural Kenya and Uganda with the skills to start informal sector businesses. She also oversees the organizational and functional departments for product operations and design across East Africa, ensuring our initiatives drive real impact. With over a decade of experience creating products across Africa, Missy has worked with the public and private sectors to bring innovative solutions to last-mile users. Her work has reached over four million youth and grown to 20 million users, transforming lives through entrepreneurship and education. See you there! #InspireAfriCon2024 #ProductDevelopment #EastAfrica #EducationInnovation #ProductLed #YouthEmployment