REACH Project

Objective

To provide vocational and entrepreneurship training in market-driven sectors to marginalized youth, rural migrants and girls for immediate employment.

Overview and Main Activities

As part of its global corporate citizenship initiative, Skills to Succeed, Accenture provides financial support and commercial expertise to Plan International to deliver a project by REACH (a local non-governmental organization). REACH provides training and career opportunities to prepare participants for jobs in industries where local demand is high, such as in information technology, customer relations, business process outsourcing and electronic repair. Training modules focus on life skills and work readiness training. In addition, Accenture employees provide their time and skills on a pro bono basis. Budget: $1,650,000. Duration: three years (2012-2014).

The project has three key components:

1. Youth employability: Provide 3,050 disadvantaged youth with equitable access to skills, employment and income. The programme was designed to ensure job placement rates and the approach follows eight steps: (1) market scan; (2) curriculum development; (3) recruitment and application; (4) induction and life skills; (5) technical training; (6) work readiness training; (7) job placement; and (8) post placement follow-up. Each step is youth-centred and market-oriented. The training is conducted in six vocational sectors: nail art, hair dressing, sales and marketing, food and beverage, housekeeping, and web and graphic design. Plan International also helps in job placement by matching young people with local employment opportunities through networks of employers. To date, REACH has placed more than 80% of the youth it has trained into employment. Trainers monitor the progress of trainees in their work places up to six months after graduation.
2. Sustainability: To ensure REACH’s financial sustainability and organizational capacity, Plan International aids REACH in developing a range of activities focused on organization longevity, including strategic planning, operational planning and management, cost recovery and business plan development.
3. Programme quality: Further improve the quality and delivery of REACH’s product, and expand the portfolio of offerings. 100% of facilitators were equipped with pedagogical training for capacity building. Curricula have
   been reviewed regularly and updated based on market needs. Additional products and new market analysis tools have been developed, information and communications technology (ICT) components have been integrated and new products, such as E-learning, are currently being rolled out.

Success Factors and Challenges

Most critical success factors:

• Funding/budget support from Accenture. Support and collaboration from local government/partners in mobilizing students and providing training facilities.
• Support from business network to place students in a job after graduation.
• Technical content: Standardized training curriculum and essential role of life-skills training.

Main challenges:

• Mobilization and socialization of the programme: REACH has three cohorts per year, which is exhaustive; hence need to continually mobilize youth for participation.
• Limited fundraising capacity: During the three years Accenture provided the grant, REACH put significant effort into implementing fundraising activities to grow the organization and diversify away from Accenture and Plan Vietnam.
• Lack of a board of director: Despite efforts, appropriate stewards with sufficient capacity and enthusiasm to join REACH have not been identified.

Recommendations for Others

• Provide evidence of youth programme successes during the new trainee mobilization process to increase the programme’s attractiveness
• Track youth over longer periods to determine the impact of the intervention
• Continually enhance the quality of the training programmes by updating training curricula, increasing capacity building for trainers, promoting the role of alumni clubs
• Strengthen the governance and operational management, including revising personnel policies to retain skilled and highly motivated staff; develop and disseminate gender mainstreaming policy and guidelines to all staff for use in their daily work
• Strengthen capacity for all staff by conducting in-house training.

Replicability and Scalability

How easily could other organizations implement this initiative?
Easy: Depending on sector and company, it may take considerable time to develop the partnerships, ensure top management support and funding, as well as employee interest.

How easily can this initiative be expanded to include a larger number of participants?
Difficult: Mentoring and educational support require long-term commitment of all partners that, ideally, work across all regions and can measure impact at a local and global level.