Wada Internships->African Students

[IMPACT] Please describe your proposed solution.

Main deliverable:

A 3-month internship program for African students and recent graduates at Wada and Wada-affiliated companies.

Project Brief:

According to the African Development Bank, on the continent, 12 million youth seek to enter the workforce each year, while only 3 million formal jobs created in the same time frame.

A portion of this total figure will be university graduates, formally trained and capable of competing on the global stage, given the right opportunity.

In Nigeria alone, there are over 600,000 graduate released each year, with youth unemployment rates amongst the highest in the world.

The Wada Internship program aims to tackle several of the key issues of graduate and youth unemployment in Africa:

1. Lack of employable skills.
2. No emphasis on entrepreneurship in the school curriculum.
3. The quality of an education not in sync with changing needs of society.

Recruitment Model:

• Student Network and Outreach
• Online Webinars
• On-Campus Events

Program Outline:

Week 1: Onboarding and Orientation.

Week 2-3: Project-based training and mentoring.

Week 4-11: Assignments, reporting and final presentation.

Week 12: Handover, career advice and feedback.

Partners:

• Edify UK - Business and impact accelerator based out of the UK. Interested in hiring African interns for admin, social media and proposal writing. [1]
• Dapp360 - Training and career management for blockchain developers. Interested in collaborating on a joint-internship program, focused on developers. [2]
• + more in development

[IMPACT] Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.

Challenge Description and KPIs:

Proposals offering solutions to infrastructure and education concerns (Medium)

• This proposal includes elements of training and education specifically for the African market, in order to improve employability of young students and graduates.

Number of new Africa-based users onboarded onto Cardano: (High)

• All interns will be required to be familiar with Cardano, set up wallets and transact with Wada using the Cardano blockchain.

Number of new Africa-based Catalyst members: (High)

• There is potential for these interns to become permanent Catalyst members after their programs are completed, including but not limited to becoming PAs, challenge team members and submitting their own proposals.

[IMPACT] What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?

Risk Management:

Program Completion: The recruitment process will be such that only the most committed of students will be accepted onto the program. Limiting the initial batch of students to the single digits allows for the program to be run as a pilot initially, reducing the impact and likelihood of drop-offs.

Program Quality: Wada will leverage its educational resources and partnerships in order to deliver a program that is high value for both it's training and career development.

Financial Sustainability: For Wada to deliver these programs, from enrollment, assessment, training and program management, there are costs involved each step of the way. In order to maintain the program beyond this fund, Wada will need to:

1. Apply to Catalyst for each subsequent internship cycle. Or...
2. Identify revenue opportunities that can sustain the program beyond Catalyst, namely:
3. Sponsorship opportunities though youth employment agencies.
4. Recruiter fee models for placing interns in permanent roles.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed plan, including timeline and key milestones for delivering your proposal.

Roadmap: 

First 30 Days:

• 3-month program developed and documented.
• Enrollment officer onboarded.
• Website and content updated.

3 months:

• Training and onboarding resources created.
• Marketing campaign launched.
• Applications opened.
• Interviews and assessments.

6 months: 

• Interns finalized and offer letters sent.
• Internship program launched.

12 months:

• Program concluded and feedback gathered.
• Alumni network created.
• Partner outreach for career opportunities.
• Next program iteration and expansion.

Workload Management:

Wada runs several projects in parallel, aided by it's network and partners to deliver on multiple proposals. A new approach to managing proposal completion is to institute a new project manager for each funded proposal, and ensure that each project manager does not have more than 3 funded proposals to deliver on at any time. 

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide a detailed budget breakdown.

Budget:

• Team Fees $10,000 (Project management, Coordination, Partner Outreach)
• Marketing $5000 (Online Campaigns, Offline Materials, Ads, Social Media)
• Program Management, Enrollment Officer and Talent Management (1 FTE) $18000 ($1500x12)
• Website, Design & Branding $500
• Outreach & Events (Pop-up stalls) $3000 (Conferences, Job Fairs, Expos)
• Documentation & Program Development $2000
• Incentives $3000
• Market research $1000 (African student and graduates labour market report)

Total Budget: $42,500

Reductions:

• Program Manager (down to 6 months) $9000 (1500x6)
• Events (2 outreach events instead of 3) $1000
• Team fees $3000
• Marketing $3000

Proposed Budget: $26,500

Funding Gap: In order to deliver a full program to the quality that we expect, a total budget has been provided. However, due to the limitations of the challenge budget available, cutbacks have to be made. We are reducing total remunerations as well as marketing and outreach efforts in order to be more aligned with the challenge overall.

[FEASIBILITY] Please provide details of the people who will work on the project.

Core Team & Roles

Josh F - Project Lead + Global Lead @ Wada

An active Catalyst member since Fund 2, 6x challenge setter, stakepool operator and funded proposer. Josh will be overseeing the successful implementation of this project.

https://linkedin.com/in/joshfielding

Megan Hess - Education & Events Lead @ Wada, Central Africa Regional Lead @ Wada, Math & Physics teacher, bilingual (French & English).

https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-hess-5b853292

Frédéric Samvura (Genty) - Business Initiatives Lead @ Wada, DRC Coordinator @ Wada, Core Contributor @ Gimbalabs.

M.A in Economics, experienced in banking and public policy. Completed the Plutus Pioneer and Atala Prism Pioneer Programs. Haskell and Plutus trainer in Wada and Gimbalabs Education programs, Smart Contract Developer and entrepreneur.

+ Wada network and advisors - https://www.wada.org/about-us

Additional Talent:

Wada will be sourcing an additional program lead for this project, who can act as both project manager and enrollment officer for the duration of its implementation.

[FEASIBILITY] If you are funded, will you return to Catalyst in a later round for further funding? Please explain why / why not.

Repeat funding will depend on whether Wada is able to identify, then acquire a reliable funding source beyond Catalyst for this program. A deeper market analysis into the youth employment industry will be done, as well as connecting with organizations that typically fund this work.

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or any member of your team working on any other proposals in this Fund9?

[FEASIBILITY] Are you or your team working on any other proposals from previous Funds?

[AUDITABILITY] Please describe what you will measure to track your project's progress, and how will you measure these?

Key Metrics:

The two key metrics to measure will be:

1. Program attrition - How many students were able to complete the entire program. This will be measured by weekly attendance at meetings and timeliness of work submitted.
2. Increase in employability - Especially relating to the number of Africans working in our ecosystem, how beneficial was the program in assisting them to obtain further work within Catalyst. Secondarily, did the program assist them in obtaining paid work or further education opportunities. This metric will be measured through post-program Alumni surveys and shared with the Cardano community in an annual report.

[AUDITABILITY] What does success for this project look like?

Success for this proposal would be an over 80% approval rating for the Wada internship program, by its participants.

Wada interns will be equipped with the skills to join other Catalyst projects in a range of functions. Marketing, editing, translation, administration, community building and many more.

We will also consider it a success if more than half of all program participants receive paid work within the following year after the program. This is in direct contrast to many regions where youth unemployment can reach above 50%.

[AUDITABILITY] Please provide information on whether this proposal is a continuation of a previously funded project in Catalyst or an entirely new one.

This is a new proposal, not directly attached to any previous ones, but existing within the network of Wada proposals.

Affiliated Fund 9 Proposals:

• Wada Academy for Haskell Devs

References:

[1] https://www.edifybusiness.co.uk/

[2] https://www.dapp360.io/