YUTE EXPANDS INCOME OPPORTUNITIES FOR UNEMPLOYED YOUTH
Following the September launch of the YUTE Microwork programme, Youth Upliftment Through Employment (YUTE) has further expanded access to online work opportunities for its beneficiaries, with a two-day training workshop held in the YUTE Microwork Centre at Rise Life Management Services on East Street, on November 28th and 29th 2015.
The YUTE Microwork programme has seen 45 young people from underserved Jamaican communities access work opportunities through an 
online platform developed by YUTE (www.yutejamaica.net) and facilitated through US-based microwork company, CrowdFlower.
This latest expansion will provide additional training for 20 young people in the use of other online-based freelance job-sites including Fiverr and Upwork. The intensive two-day training was facilitated by Internet Income Jamaica.
Internet Income Jamaica’s Chief Executive Officer, Alicia Lyttle explained that “the training equipped YUTE Microwork participants with the practical tools needed to market their skills and talents effectively online to global clients. They set up their businesses and by the end of the training a few participants had already made sales on Fiverr.com.” she added.
YUTE’s Executive Director, Alicia Glasgow Gentles noted that the one-year pilot programme is focused on enhancing income-generating opportunities for young people. “These sessions make for a more dynamic and sustainable model, in that, our participants are now better placed to access a wider range of earning opportunities through multiple platforms,” she said.
This is especially important, Mrs. Gentles added, due to the findings of current labour market studies. “There is a mismatch between the skills required by employers and the current skills of vulnerable youth, and so, the one-year Microwork pilot is exploring the possibility to narrow that gap through online work,” she concluded.
YUTE Microwork is funded by the JMMB’s Joan Duncan Foundation and Northeastern University’s Social Enterprise Institute.