Since its humble start in 1919, Junior Achievement has become the world’s largest organization that teaches students about business and the job market. On an average day, close to 30,000 young people across the globe—from primary school kids to college undergrads—take part in Junior Achievement programs. They learn about entrepreneurship, financial literacy and workplace readiness from a large network of local corporate leaders. One lucky group in Washington, DC had Ben Bernanke, the US Federal Reserve Chair, as their instructor for a day.
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But being prepared for the workforce only helps if you have access to it. In Kenya, Junior Achievement’s East Africa hub, youth unemployment rates are persistently high. In large part it’s because young job-seekers lack the basic tools to connect with employers: Certain jobs are posted in newspaper classified ads or on websites, but many young people don’t have regular Internet access and can’t afford a daily paper.
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However, almost all of these prospective “new hires” use a mobile phone for text messaging. This is why Souktel’s renowned JobMatch service offers a perfect solution.
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“Starting this month, we’re working with Junior Achievement Kenya to send job opportunity updates to over 2,000 Kenyan youth by SMS,” says Souktel’s Lana Hijazi. “Through our simple mobile information platform, youth who take part in Junior Achievement’s programs can also sign up to get SMS job alerts. Then they can find out quickly and easily when work is available at Junior Achievement partner companies”.
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From their end, Kenyan employers like Citibank and Coca Cola, who already cooperate with Junior Achievement on training courses, can fill job openings more quickly by SMS than through traditional job ads in the paper.
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John Wali, Junior Achievement Kenya’s Executive Director, is equally excited: “Souktel is helping us with the final piece of the puzzle,” he says. “We try to help local youth by preparing them for the workforce. Now with the JobMatch SMS service, opportunities in that same workforce will be coming directly to their mobile phones.”
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To learn more about Junior Achievement, click here: www.ja.org
