JMMB SUPPORTS SELF-EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUTH

The spirit of entrepreneurship has always been strong among Jamaicans – from the small farmer, and shopkeeper, to those who founded the small family businesses, which grew into many of today’s leading corporations. Just as strong has been an enthusiastic embrace of modern technology.

Now an innovative new project by Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) is building upon these two areas of strength-entrepreneurial spirit and technology- to help young Jamaicans access key earning opportunities in a burgeoning global marketplace. The YUTE Microwork programme is being piloted with major sponsorship from the Joan Duncan Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the JMMB Group.

“Microwork is a series of small tasks that have been broken out of a larger project, which can be completed via the internet by any worker anywhere,” says YUTE Programme Manager, Roger Graham. “The tasks are varied and flexible, and the skills needed range from basic to complex. They can serve sectors such as market research, data input, data verification, copywriting, graphic design or software development,” he added.

It has been established that over a million workers globally have earned up to US$2 billion doing this type of work over the past 10 years – and the market is expected to continue to grow steadily. The current one-year Microwork programme was launched in August 2015, benefitting 50 young men and women between the ages of 18 and 29, who reside in vulnerable communities across the Kingston Metropolitan Area.

In addition to the actual online work provided through the programme, another core component is the training and matching of YUTE protégés with mentors to provide career advice, personal guidance and positive role models. A recent merger of YUTE and Youth Opportunities Unlimited, Jamaica’s premier mentoring organisation has enhanced this. Additionally, participants are offered special workshops in transformational leadership and financial literacy, which is facilitated through the Joan Duncan Foundation.

The pressing need for earning opportunities among Jamaican young people was highlighted by the fact that there were more than 200 applicants for the 50 available places in the Microwork pilot. The fact that the programme is helping to develop independent entrepreneurs, has made it an ideal fit for the Joan Duncan Foundation.

The Foundation’s CEO, Kim Mair, explains that this initiative is in keeping with Joan Duncan’s entrepreneurial spirit which led her to establish JMMB in collaboration with Dr. Noel Lyon. “The Foundation, in honour of her legacy remains committed to the development of projects which develop, support and guide transformational initiatives in education and entrepreneurship – as a testament to this we also support projects such as those developed by YUTE, venture competitions and the Joan Duncan School of Entrepreneurship at University of Technology (Jamaica). Additionally we are happy to further engage youth and allow them to unearth their greatness so that they can make a positive contribution to their society, having been instrumental in the YUTE programme since its inception.

Joining YUTE and JMMB are supporting partners, Northeastern University and Crowd Flower. A leading US work management platform, Crowd Flower provides training and facilitates the interconnectivity of its own platform with YUTE’s website—providing linkages between workers and the company’s clients, including world corporate leaders such as Apple, Microsoft and Twitter. It was Northeastern’s Social Enterprise Institute, which inspired and catalysed the project. The Boston-based University is also providing sponsorship for the YUTE Microwork Centre that has been set up at the East Street offices of community partner, Rise Life Management Services. There, participants can use computers and the internet, and access the platform. Participants may also access the platform outside of the centre – wherever they have access to a computer and a reliable internet connection.

“The service is being offered to our YUTE participants free of cost for a period of one year. YUTE is facilitating participation on the platform –an opportunity that would not be available to a great majority of our participants due to the requirement for individual credit cards. YUTE is therefore managing the distribution of their earnings through an electronic payment system channeled through a local bank,” Graham explained.

Two participants in the Microwork Programme, Jervis Walker and Nicholette Hamilton, agree that although the tasks are somewhat easy at the onset, they require speed, high levels of accuracy and considerable effort to accumulate significant earnings. Although both are aiming for other careers, they agree that Microwork offers a valuable opportunity for someone in need of a job, as well as a chance to earn and/or save, “in the meanwhile”. Nicholette, who is a fourth year community college student studying for her bachelors’ degree in Marketing, is comfortable that this type of work can offer her some very useful ‘back up’ if it takes her a while to find employment in the field of her choice.

She says, “I find the work very easy – there is nothing difficult about it, but you need to do the tasks very fast, and if your accuracy level is not up there you will get pushed back. What I do like about it, is that I can do the tasks anywhere on my tablet. And once you have a little momentum going you can breeze through them. It’s a good programme–a good opportunity for people who don’t have employment already.”

In contrast, Jervis is a 19 year old who has not been able to find employment since leaving school two years ago. After several weeks of three to four hours a day working on these tasks, he has attained the second of the three skill levels. “This can’t support me fully, but it helps in small ways,” he says of his current earning level with Microwork, adding, “I have to really push out the maximum a good amount of the time.  I intend to stay with it and try to earn – it is a good sideline.”

Like Nicholette, Jervis dreams of a very different career – he wants to be an actor – but for the time being, the Microwork tasks offer a very viable alternative.