Employment Hub

Growth and excitement have been in abundance the past few months, highlighted by the inauguration of our Employment Hub space at our San Lucas Sacatepéquez headquarters back in April. The Employment Hub serves as a co-working space for students with 10 laptops providing access to technology and business software. This space will also be used to host career readiness trainings. The 10-week training course was piloted this past fall through our strategic partnership with Impact Hub Antigua. 41 students participated in the pilot from August-November, 2025, 16 of whom completed internships, with five formally hired.

Throughout the 2026 calendar year, the Employment Hub program will host three cohorts of final-year Rise students and recent graduates (up to 100 youth, primarily Indigenous women). In conjunction with the launch of the Employment Hub space, the first cohort of 39 students began their training. Over the following 10 weeks, they completed five virtual lessons and five in-person workshops. We celebrated the graduation of the first cohort on Saturday, June 13.

Another cohort will begin the workshop series soon, completing the same hybrid workshop schedule. The third and final cohort will begin their training in September. The workshops provide additional training in financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and job readiness, conducted by Impact Hub’s trainers. At the end of the year, students will complete internships with local businesses. Impact Hub specifically has committed to placing 30-50% of students in internships; many of which will lead to job placements, empowering these students to achieve social mobility and begin breaking the cycle of poverty in their families.