International Programme on Youth Entrepreneurship Training (IPYET)

‘’Education is the clearest path to individual opportunity and societal growth and entrepreneurship education is especially vital to fuelling a more robust global economy. Entrepreneurs bring news ideas to life through innovation, creativity and the desire to build something of lasting value. Therefore, we must continually foster educational cultures within our companies, governments and communities to ensure the entrepreneurship pipeline is filled for generations to come’’

Dirk Meyer President and C.E.O Advance Micro Devices New York Stock Exchange

There is need for a paradigm shift from the conventional approaches to youth entrepreneurship training as a way of responding to the demands of our changing world. Such is the way to address the challenges of youth unemployment and underemployment which poses complex economic, social and moral issues.

It is against this backdrop that the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in collaboration with other partners designed an international Training of Trainers workshop for Youth Development Practitioners in 2009. The International Programme on Youth Entrepreneurship Training” (IPYET ) was designed as a step towards mitigating the challenges facing Youth Entrepreneurship Education and to empower trainers and experts in developing and delivering quality and timely training programmes that can respond to the needs of our times.

IPYET is an annual, intensive, trainer-of-trainers programme in youth entrepreneurship training where trainers in this field get the opportunity to share experience and best practice. It introduces participants to contemporary materials, techniques and approaches developed in the field of entrepreneurship training. It is also an opportunity to showcase several training approaches from the ILO including the Start and Improve Your Own Business (SIYB), Gender and Entrepreneurship Together (GET Ahead) for Youth in Enterprise and the Commonwealth’s Youth Credit Initiative (CYCI) programme and sustainability models.

So far the programme which is running for the 4^th consecutive year has benefited hundreds of Youth Development Practitioners who in return have impacted directly or indirectly the lives and business of more than 30,000 young entrepreneurs across the commonwealth and beyond.

Target Audience

The programme is targeted at youth development practitioners, labour and employment officers, social development programmers, enterprise mentors, trainers and academia. The residential programme will accommodate 30 participants. Participants are expected to have experience in entrepreneurship development or training with minimum of an academic degree with at least 1 year experience in youth work, or a diploma with at least 3 years’ experience in youth development. Basic IT skills are essential and internet access is a must.

IPYET participants include; Youth Officers, Labour Officers, Employment Officers and Planners, working with Ministries responsible for youth, VOTEC, industry or labour; National Youth Councils; Youth Resource Centres, Officers, academics and trainers with enterprise and entrepreneurship training centres; Youth development practitioners and programmers; Staff of NGOs, CSOs, and International Organizations with a focus on youth employment/entrepreneurship or employment and labour;

Training Methods

The programme is delivered in two sessions, namely; the online session, which is designed to award participants with a good view of Youth Enterprise as a development imperative. It encompasses discussions and assignments on national and international framework and models of entrepreneurship development. Graduates of the online session are awarded with a certificate in Youth Entrepreneurship Development. The second session is the residential which runs for a maximum 2 weeks period at the CYP centre in Lusaka Zambia. A unique component of this programme is its focus on “participants' facilitation”. The programme is flexible and experiential. All participant co-facilitate various sessions and their own country/project experiences come to bare in shaping the learning experiences for the group.

IPYET Testimonials

The first edition of programme took place in April 2010, in Zambia and brought together 37 youth development practitioners from 18 countries from government, employers’ organizations, workers organizations, the private sector, academia, and civil society. Since 2010, IPYET has continued to grow and reach many more youth development practitioners

Here are some testimonials from past participants;

‘The program does a good job of teaching entrepreneurship skills to young people, and we were further educated on these activities as training facilitators’.

- Mr. Alex Shipillo, Impact Entrepreneurship Group. Canada

What I learnt have been very useful. I can now develop training programmes for small income generation businesses and I see and measure my results’.

- Ms. Angela Reane, Ministry of Youth, Mozambique