{"id":880,"date":"2021-10-25T19:20:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T19:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jobtechalliance.com\/?p=880"},"modified":"2024-03-18T06:37:12","modified_gmt":"2024-03-18T06:37:12","slug":"why-were-setting-up-the-jobtech-alliance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.jobtechalliance.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/25\/why-were-setting-up-the-jobtech-alliance\/","title":{"rendered":"Why we\u2019re setting up the Jobtech Alliance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section fb_built=”1″ custom_padding_last_edited=”on|phone” admin_label=”Blog” _builder_version=”4.18.0″ background_color=”#f6f8fa” custom_margin=”0px||0px||true|false” custom_margin_tablet=”” custom_margin_phone=”” custom_margin_last_edited=”on|phone” custom_padding=”0px||0px||true|false” custom_padding_tablet=”||100px||false|false” custom_padding_phone=”100px||100px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.18.0″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”0px|auto||auto|false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom” _builder_version=”4.16″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”||||||||” header_2_font=”Montserrat|800|||||||” header_2_font_size=”30px” header_2_line_height=”1.5em” header_3_font=”||||||||” header_4_font=”||||||||” max_width_tablet=”700px” max_width_phone=”700px” max_width_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_margin=”|||” custom_margin_tablet=”|0px||” custom_margin_phone=”|0px||” custom_margin_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false” header_2_font_size_tablet=”30px” header_2_font_size_phone=”20px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” border_color_all=”#12eaa6″ border_color_top=”#c8102e” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]

Author: Chris Maclay<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI often say that an entrepreneur starting a venture today versus the starting the same venture a few years ago, the chances of that person succeeding is now dramatically different because the ecosystem is just so nutrient rich.\u201d Tony Chen, Partner at Verdant Frontiers and Co-Founder of Kinyungu Ventures.<\/em><\/p>\n

When I listened to the first episode of Tayo Akinyemi\u2019s The Trajectory Africa podcast where she interviewed investor Tony Chen, I was excited and frustrated in equal parts. Excited, because I agreed with the general premise of opportunity in the African start-up space, and frustrated, because many of these features I was hearing about could not be said about the space which I cared most about: jobtech*.<\/p>\n

I had recently sat on the Advisory Board of Village Capital\u2019s Future of Work Africa Accelerator, the first (that I am aware of) pan-African accelerator focused on start-ups in the jobmatching, gigmatching, and edtech-for-employment space. I had to review eight (already shortlisted) applicants. Four of the eight had the same business model – a matching platform for blue collar workers, where a customer makes a request and different workers bid for the job, and the app charges a percentage of commission. A business model I was very familiar with, as I had tried to implement it as COO of Kenyan gigmatching platform, Lynk, fully four years earlier. I say tried, as it hadn\u2019t worked (you can read more here<\/a>). Nor had it worked for the handful of other such start-ups in Kenya that tried the model, and the dozens of others that had done so across the continent. Lynk changed its model years ago – to a much more operationally implementable and scalable model, itself with plenty of challenges (more in later episodes) – but it took years (and plenty of money) to learn these lessons. These lessons that had been learned by Lynk, however, had not been learned by the wider ecosystem. If the ecosystem even existed at all\u2026<\/p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” custom_padding=”7px|||||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″ _builder_version=”4.16″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][et_pb_text module_class=”custom” _builder_version=”4.16″ text_font=”Montserrat|800|||||||” text_text_color=”#000000″ text_font_size=”20px” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”||||||||” header_2_font=”Montserrat|800|||||||” header_2_font_size=”30px” header_2_line_height=”1.5em” header_3_font=”||||||||” header_4_font=”||||||||” max_width_tablet=”700px” max_width_phone=”700px” max_width_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_margin=”|||” custom_margin_tablet=”|0px||” custom_margin_phone=”|0px||” custom_margin_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false” header_2_font_size_tablet=”30px” header_2_font_size_phone=”20px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” border_color_all=”#12eaa6″ border_color_top=”#c8102e” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]

A big problem with big solutions needed<\/strong><\/p>[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”custom” _builder_version=”4.16″ text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”2em” header_font=”||||||||” header_2_font=”Montserrat|800|||||||” header_2_font_size=”30px” header_2_line_height=”1.5em” header_3_font=”||||||||” header_4_font=”||||||||” max_width_tablet=”700px” max_width_phone=”700px” max_width_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_margin=”|||” custom_margin_tablet=”|0px||” custom_margin_phone=”|0px||” custom_margin_last_edited=”off|desktop” custom_padding=”0px||||false|false” header_2_font_size_tablet=”30px” header_2_font_size_phone=”20px” header_2_font_size_last_edited=”on|phone” border_color_all=”#12eaa6″ border_color_top=”#c8102e” locked=”off” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]

18 million young people entered the labour market in Sub-Saharan Africa last year, and only three million formal sector jobs were created. By 2030, 30 million will be entering the labour market each year. Youth unemployment is a massive challenge that requires integrated approaches and investment from public and private sectors. Education and training, investment policy and labour laws, financial services and social and gender norms, among others, all play huge roles in how young people access opportunity. Technology will not solve the youth unemployment problem in itself. Far from it. However, if experience from elsewhere in the world tells us anything, it\u2019s that technology is going to play a significant role in how young people of the future are skilled and connected to opportunity. Moreover – with exceptions – the role of technology in work on the continent is under-addressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

In most emerging markets, particularly in Africa, jobtech has yet to truly catalyse positive breakthrough solutions – few start-ups have truly succeeded to create livelihoods opportunities at scale. Specifically, we see:<\/span><\/p>\n