Tomorrow Foundation has together with their long-term partner organisation JA Africa committed to supporting the innovative digital project the Digital Entrepreneurship Education Program (JA DEEP) to deliver the impactful Company Program through an online platform to reach students in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, DRC, and Gabon.
About the program
The JA DEEP is an online-based interactive entrepreneurship curriculum created specifically for young African learners. It is the online version of the successful in-person Company Program that teaches the same principles in an engaging and fun way. It’s a part of the Futurepreneurship Initiative that our Foundation proudly has sponsored for several years that has ensured delivery of the in-person Company Program in Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Ghana and the Regional COY Competition.
Similar to the in-person Company Program, the DEEP platform enables learners the opportunity to experience the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship by walking them through how to start and operate a business that fills a need or solves a problem in their communities. Learners put theory into practice from idea generation, product development, capitalisation of the venture, marketing and sales strategies and financial reporting while being supported with digital or in-person mentorship from a JA corporate volunteer.
Read more about the program here: Tomorrow foundation - JA DEEP factsheet
Here you can watch an introduction to the platform:
The platform can be accessed on skillslab.ja-africa.org.
Scope
On Tomorrow Foundation’s initiative and desire to enable all African youths to become economically self-reliant, we are providing financial and operational support to the development of a French version of the program in addition to the English one to extend equal opportunities also to the youth of francophone countries. At later stages, also local languages will be supported on the platform.
Our foundation is providing both financial and technical support for the implementation of the JA DEEP in Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal, DRC, and Gabon which aims to equip more than 10,600 youths over four years with entrepreneurship and financial literacy skills.
Additionally, Tomorrow Foundation will sponsor the impactful and popular yearly Regional Company of the Year Competitions for the JA DEEP which will be based on the same model as the in-person Company Program.
The mission is to establish a cohort of entrepreneurial-minded and financially independent young Ivorians, Senegalese, Congolese and Gabonese who can be change-makers in their communities and act as catalysts for economic growth.
Digital Transformation
With increasing pressure on the world’s resources and an urgent need to cut emissions, digital transformation can help set the world’s economy on a sustainable footing.
Creating the online learning platform JA DEEP is part of the efforts laid out in JA’s Digital Roadmap that was established under the new leadership of JA Africa in order to achieve a doubling of their reach to 500,000 by 2023 through digital transformation.
By harnessing the potential of the digital transformative, the DEEP platform ought to be inclusive and flexible by enabling us to reach youth across the continent, whether in or out of school, in rural or urban areas, unemployed or in employment etc.
By establishing a digital learning platform, JA Africa and Tomorrow Foundation maximize the scaling opportunities for the entrepreneurial education. Thereby, DEEP has the potential to engage over one million students yearly, while cutting the cost of delivery to less than one dollar per student per year.
The expansion into the digital space is an important step for JA and Tomorrow Foundation toward preparing for the future generations’ entrepreneurial education that will be independent of time and space limitations.
Timeline
This year the program and platform will go through the translation process and will be piloted in Côte d’Ivoire to expand opportunities for youth in non-JA schools.
In subsequent years, Tomorrow Foundation will support the expansion in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Gabon and other Francophone countries in Africa.
