THE UGANDA GRADUATE VOLUNTEER SCHEME
BACKGROUND
For many of Uganda’s young graduates, the transition from school to work is encumbered by various obstacles. One of these obstacles is the lack of hands-on skills required by the labour market which Universities and other educational institutions are not able to provide. To address this obstacle and enhance the young graduates’ employability, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and United Nations Volunteers (UNV) have partnered with the Government of Uganda through the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development (MoGLSD) on the Uganda Graduate Volunteer Scheme (UGVS) - a project that is intended to provide a bridge for young Ugandan graduates as they transit from school to work.
Timeline
UGVS will be piloted for 2 years 2018-2019
Goal
To build capacity of national institutions, partners and key stakeholders to mainstream and create employment for youth
Stakeholders
Graduate Youth National institutions, UN agencies, Private Sector, Civil Society, Tertiary Institutions
PROGRAMME DESCRIPTION
The main objective of the UGVS is to create employment avenues for young graduates while building the capacity of national institutions, private sector and other key partners to mainstream youth employment into their work places. The Scheme will utilize volunteerism as an avenue for youth’s contribution to societal development challenges and a pathway to providing the youth with the soft skills required to be employable or to create employment for themselves. Volunteers will be employed in various public and private institutions which are partnering with the Scheme. They will also be provided with a full-on job package that includes coaching, mentorship, role models to guide them along their career path even after the programme.
(i) develop the ideas into comprehensive business proposals,
(ii) strengthen their business skills through entrepreneurship training,
(iii) gain access to financing to start up or improve their businesses, and
(iv) acquire support with coaching and mentoring from experienced entrepreneurs to help the volunteers from start up through to building their own successful enterprises.
The pilot phase of the programme will run for two years from 2018 to the end of 2019.
Key Partner
Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development
Target beneficiaries
- Ugandan graduates 18-35 years
- 500 graduates annually
- Diploma/ TVET graduates (30%), Bachelor’s (60%) & Masters (10%)
- Up to 4 years after school
- 50-50 male-female
- 10% graduates with disabilities
- Inclusive for all regions of Uganda