TechnoServe is helping a pool of young, future entrepreneurs in Swaziland create successful businesses that will generate economic growth and employment in this poverty-stricken nation.
The burden of turning around Swaziland’s economic fortunes rests on its youth. In Swaziland, 50% of the population is under the age of 19. Unemployment rates are nearly 50%. The dominant local export industries--textile, sugar cane, and mining--are declining due to global competition. Annually over 10,000 school leavers attempt to join the already-flooded labor market that can absorb less than 2,000 new entrants into the formal employment economy.
TechnoServe is implementing a youth entrepreneurship program aimed at developing young people’s business skills. Currently we are piloting the program in secondary schools, and will eventually roll out the program to nearly 7500 students.
TechnoServe’s youth entrepreneurship program will create an entrepreneurial culture among Swazi youth and will push students to seek further education and/or start a business.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Word file (projdoc.doc).
