Creating Boundless Futures for African Youth
Z Zurich Foundation, JA Africa, and JA Worldwide partner to expand educational opportunity
The Z Zurich Foundation shares JA’s commitment to equipping vulnerable youth with the skills and resources to reach their full potential. While the Foundation partners with several of JA’s regions and locations, its most recent partnership with JA Worldwide focuses on expanding educational opportunities that promote entrepreneurship and work readiness skills in Africa.
“We are very proud of this new partnership, delivering interventions and skill-based expertise with the aim to create brighter futures in Africa, building on impactful programmes we’ve already built with JA around the world. The Z Zurich Foundation’s expertise on social equity and mental well-being nicely complements JA’s track record in building resilience and self-efficacy in more than 12 million young people every year.”
Partnership Goals
In 2022, the Z Zurich Foundation, JA Africa, and JA Worldwide launched a three-year “Social Equity Program” to combat youth unemployment while promoting social equity and sustainable development.
Partners are working together to expand educational opportunities in current JA locations, including Côte d'Ivoire, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda, and launch activities in additional countries. Through local partnerships within each community, JA educators and Z Zurich volunteers are equipping young people with tools for financial independence, economic participation, and community development.
The Social Equity Program aims to engage and benefit more than 500,000 youth and families.
Learning Experiences
Bootcamp Curriculum
A three-day, intensive learning experience helps young people gain work readiness and entrepreneurship skills. Educators teach young people how to start a new business, from market research to business formation and management. Young people gain skills in project management and financial literacy while cultivating positive and healthy mindsets for mental wellbeing.
JA Digital Entrepreneurship Education Platform (JA DEEP)
After the bootcamp, young people register in JA DEEP, an online entrepreneurship curriculum that further strengthens entrepreneurial skills and attitudes. JA DEEP enables participants to gain a deeper understanding of product development, costing, marketing, sales strategy, and financial reporting.
Social Enterprise Competition
As part of their training to become social entrepreneurs and change agents, young people are encouraged to tackle a social issue facing their communities related to sustainable living. Students form teams, develop project plans, and implement the social impact project with support from mentors from the Zurich Insurance Group, Project Management Institute (PMI), and others. Teams present their social enterprises to panels of judges, who select the most promising enterprises and award seed grants.
Resources for Lifelong Success
Career Matching Platform
The Z Zurich Foundation is enabling JA to build a new Career Matching Platform that provides a pathway for alumni of the program to achieve gainful employment. Partners’ initial goal is to match 1,000 JA alumni with recruiters for employment opportunities by December 2023.
Mental Health & Well-Being
Partners are working together to equip youth with mental-wellbeing skills and knowledge that will help them live their lives and engage professionally at their full potential. Online resources encourage positive self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making.
“This experience has given me valuable hands-on business skills as a young aspiring business owner. Working in a team taught me the power of collaboration and critical thinking in finding efficient solutions to social issues in my country. It has been life-changing, and I feel confident that I won’t face financial issues personally after being part of this transformative initiative.”
Participating Locations
JA Burkina Faso
JA Democratic Republic of the Congo
JA Liberia
JA Sierra Leone
JA Togo
In addition to its partnership with JA Worldwide and JA Africa, the Z Zurich Foundation works with Prestasi Junior Indonesia, Junior Achievement Isle of Man, Junior Achievement Spain, JA Canada, and Junior Achievement USA.
“Many young Africans are entrepreneurial by nature, but may be limited in their ability to develop solutions to the challenges around them and capture value from those solutions. This partnership will help African youth develop the resilience, problem-solving and design-thinking skills, and mental well-being they need to understand the complex problems in the region and design sustainable solutions, and mentorship will play an important role.”
Z Zurich University: Enabling Volunteer Impact
The time, energy, and experience of volunteers plays a critical role in expanding educational opportunities for young people. To enable volunteers to be as successful as possible, JA and the Z Zurich Foundation are creating a new resource, the Z Zurich University, that volunteers can utilize to learn and practice effective youth engagement strategies. Moreover, through the University’s personalized experience, volunteers can actively develop qualities such as openness, empathy, and adeptness in handling challenging situations. These skills will not only enrich their volunteer experience but also translate into tangible benefits in their professional and personal lives.