The third action is to undertake pilot youth projects financed by public money which are promising but are not yet tested out to roll out with confidence. This action is equivalent to what happens in incubation centres and we would commit to documenting and sharing lessons. The value in doing some youth projects at pilot level is to have the opportunity to understand what works in relation to the programme’s main aspirations and also to say what does not work to determine if scaling up is appropriate. We already have some ideas for piloting such as the reversed approach to skill building. In this conception, we start skills building from what usually comes last in the conventional approach of vocational training. This means youth intending to learn a particular practical skill are placed in real life work stations and learn from their trainers in a natural way and daily share in what takes place such as handling customers and negotiating terms with customers. In this model, students study longer from workstations and later can go to a vocational center for supplementary training mainly to align their practical knowledge with the standards and ethics accepted in the world of work. This is a paradigm shift to vocational training with prospects but would need to transit through a pilot to learn what works and its potential and thereafter decide whether it is feasible enough to scal up.
