The Problem and Motivation Behind
“There are so many young people who finish university but can’t find jobs because they don’t have the skills that employers are looking for … Every year, thousands graduate from universities, but many of them don’t have the right skills to secure a job.” – Fabien
Fabien Keita (26-year-old) and his team members from Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso witnessed firsthand many young people graduated from university and could not find jobs or even opportunities to gain practical, employable skills. This gap between education and employment contributes to high youth unemployment, poverty, and a sense of frustration among young people in their countries. They wanted to create a solution to connect young people with meaningful opportunities to grow, earn, and lead.
The Innovative Solution
“We thought about equipping them with cross-cutting skills that would help them stand out, and ultimately have a job. That was our main driver … Our solution is Vision Barra—a platform that develops youth skills and connects them with recruiters looking for qualified candidates.” – Fabien.
When Fabien and his team joined Youth Innovation Lab of Save the Children in 2019 –2020, they chose to address the problem of the mismatch between the skills youth have and the job market needs. Through a Design Thinking process, they began by understanding youth job seekers through surveys and informal discussions. Then, they developed a concept of an integrated a digital platform, Vision Barra, combining learning, coaching, and job matching. The platform provides young people with access to coaching and training that build employable skills, and then match them with job opportunities through the platform. Fabien explains, “We wanted the platform to guide users step-by-step: from profile creation to analysing their skills, suggesting what they need to improve, then linking them to training resources. Finally, they would be matched with recruiters. We even wanted to integrate AI to coach users in their job search.”
“Our platform has two sides: one for young job seekers who need training, and one for recruiters looking for skilled workers.” – Fabien.
They developed a prototype using WordPress, which included a user registration interface, skill assessment, and recruiter dashboard. They designed their platform to help young people develop practical skills and connect them with employers seeking qualified candidates. Additionally, the platform had a section to support youth in building their own projects or businesses. The platform prototype received positive and encouraging feedback from young people. “At least 1,000 people connected to the platform when it was live. One person even secured a job through it,” Fabian adds.
This feedback validated their prototype and highlighted the potential of digital solutions to address unemployment. It even inspired the emergence of other similar tech-based employment initiatives. However, Fabien and his team struggled to keep the platform live due to the high cost of hosting and development. “We developed a smart, interactive platform… but we couldn’t keep it running because we didn’t have enough funds to pay for hosting and development,” Fabien explains. Although they were unable to keep Vision Barra active, they take pride in the fact that their platform inspired other youth to pursue similar digital solutions for employment.
Lessons Learned and Addressing Challenges
“Youth Innovation Lab helped us materialise the project. They gave us a small seed grant to register the company and develop the first prototype. But the grant wasn’t enough to develop the full platform we envisioned.” – Fabien.
Fabien and his team received a training and mentoring support that enabled them to apply design thinking and planning tools, and to work as a team. They also received a seed grant of 650,000 CFA francs (about $1000) from Youth Innovation Lab that helped them to develop the prototype and put their solution under testing.
Reflecting on the learning, Fabien identified four major lessons learned.
- Working in collaboration across borders – Developing Vision Barra gave Fabien first-hand experience in managing a remote, multicultural team. Working with colleagues from different countries pushed him to adapt his leadership style and embrace diverse perspectives. “I learned to work with people I had never met before, and to adjust my vision to include other ideas. It helped me become a better team player,” he shared. This experience strengthened his interpersonal skills and taught him the value of flexibility and collaboration in team dynamics, especially when working with a team across borders.
- Innovation requires mobilising investments – One of the biggest lessons Fabien and his team learned was the critical importance of adequate funding in delivering a fully functional innovation. Although they were able to develop a basic prototype of Vision Barra, they lacked the resources to implement key features such as AI-powered coaching and personalised skill tracking. “Our prototype couldn’t integrate the AI coaching or personalised skill tracking features. Without them, our platform looked just like every other job site,” Fabien explained. This taught them that promising ideas can fall short of their full potential. However, this could also inspire others to work in this direction.
- Youth-centred solutions should be affordable for all young people – Another major learning was that accessibility and affordability must go hand in hand when designing solutions for young people. Vision Barra was intended to offer coaching and training services to support youth employment, but many students couldn’t afford to pay for these services. “University students couldn’t pay for the coaching and training services. And we couldn’t afford to offer them for free without partners to sponsor the learners,” Fabien said. This highlighted the need for sustainable financial models and partnerships to ensure that similar platforms and services remain accessible to the communities they aim to serve.
- Being inspired to enable other youth to develop innovative ideas and solutions – Fabien was inspired by the support he received from the Youth Innovation Lab, which led him to develop the Fab Innovation Lab in 2022 to help other youth in his region, Ségou, developing their own innovative solutions to address problems in their communities. Fab Innovation Lab applies the same design thinking model Fabien learned at the Youth Innovation Lab. It has supported over 100 young people across four cohorts to design their and develop prototypes of their solutions in areas for agriculture, environment, health, and employment.
“Thanks to the Youth Innovation Lab, I realised I had the tools to empower other young people. That’s why I started Fab Innovation Lab…. I wanted to share what I learned with others. I wanted more young people to experience what I experienced.” Fabien.
Next Steps and Future Aspirations
“Our vision is to expand Vision Barra so that more young people can be equipped with employable skills and connected with recruiters.” – Fabien Keita
Fabien still believe in Vision Barra’s potential. Their goal is to relaunch the platform with advanced features, including AI coaching, profile analysis and an online training module. His aspiration also goes beyond Vision Barra. Through Fab Innovation Lab, he aims to continue helping young people launch their own innovations. Fabien is actively seeking technical support, funding, and partnerships to keep the momentum going. “If Save the Children cannot support us financially, we hope they can connect us with other donors. We need experts to assess the impact and help us scale,” Fabien adds.