Country of Residence

Kenya

Age

20

Project title

WORKDRIDGE

Project Summary: Describe your project in one sentence

WorkBridge is a youth-led initiative that bridges the gap between skills and dignified work by equipping unemployed and underemployed youth with market-ready digital skills, portfolios, mentorship, professional networks, and direct pathways to jobs, freelance opportunities, and paid work.

Website URL(s) or social media handles.

Project Category

My project is a brand new / emerging idea

Project Stage

Idea (We’re hoping to get started in the future)

Founding Story: What was the spark that led you to start your project? What was the "Aha!" moment that led you to get started and see the potential for this to succeed?

The spark for WorkBridge came from working directly with young people trying to build a future in the digital economy. While working as an Evergreen Trainer with the Ajira Digital Program, I trained learners in practical digital skills and freelancing, mentored them, and helped them develop competencies relevant to the market. I enjoyed seeing the excitement that came when a young person discovered a skill they could use to create opportunities for themselves. But I also began asking a bigger question: what happens after the training? I realized that learning a skill is only one part of the journey. Many young people still struggle to build portfolios, gain experience, find credible opportunities, connect with employers or clients, and turn their skills into sustainable income. That was my “aha!” moment. The problem was not simply a lack of skills; it was the gap between having skills and accessing dignified work. That realization led to WorkBridge. I want to build a pathway that helps young people move beyond certificates—to practical experience, portfolios, professional networks and real opportunities to earn. My goal is simple: no young person should have to wonder, “I have the skills, but where do I find the opportunity?”

The Problem: What problem are you helping to solve? Why does it matter to you and your community?

Youth unemployment is not only a lack of jobs; it is also a gap between young people's potential and their ability to access meaningful work. I have seen this gap through my experience training and mentoring young people in digital skills and freelancing. Many young people are willing to learn and work, but after gaining new skills, they can still struggle with building portfolios, gaining practical experience, finding credible opportunities, connecting with employers or clients, and confidently presenting their abilities. This matters to me because I have seen the excitement that comes when a young person discovers a skill they can use to create a future, and I believe that opportunity should not end with a certificate. When young people remain unable to translate their skills into income or meaningful work, their potential is left untapped and communities lose the ideas, creativity and contribution they could bring. WorkBridge aims to address this gap by creating a practical pathway from skills to dignified work. Instead of stopping at training, we will help young people build evidence of their abilities, gain experience, develop professional networks and connect with genuine employment and income opportunities. I want to help change the question from “What skills do you have?” to “How can we help you turn those skills into a livelihood?”

Your Solution: How are you solving this problem? Share your specific solution.

WorkBridge will create a practical “skills-to-work” pathway for unemployed and underemployed young people. Instead of stopping when a young person completes training, we will support them through the steps that often determine whether their skills actually lead to work. First, young people will join market-focused learning pathways based on their interests and existing abilities, including areas such as digital marketing, graphic design, content creation, video production, web development, virtual assistance and AI-enabled digital work. Drawing from my experience facilitating digital skills and freelancing training, the program will focus on practical, market-relevant learning. Second, participants will build proof of their abilities rather than relying only on certificates. Each participant will develop a professional CV, LinkedIn profile, portfolio and practical projects that demonstrate what they can do. Third, WorkBridge will provide mentorship and work-readiness support, including interview preparation, professional communication, freelancing guidance, networking and guidance on identifying legitimate opportunities. Fourth, we will build connections between participants and employers, organizations, entrepreneurs and clients through networking sessions, practical projects, internships, freelance opportunities and entry-level work pathways. Finally, we will track what happens after training. Our success will not simply be measured by the number of young people trained, but by how many build portfolios, gain practical experience, access opportunities, secure paid work or begin earning through freelancing. WorkBridge's goal is simple: to turn training into a pathway to dignified work, so that young people leave not just with knowledg.

Impact: How has your project created impact / made a difference so far? Or, if at an early stage, what will impact look like?

WorkBridge is at an early stage, so its impact is currently a vision backed by my experience working directly with young people. Through my work as an Evergreen Trainer with the Ajira Digital Program, I facilitated practical digital-skills and freelancing training, mentored learners and helped them develop market-relevant competencies. This experience showed me both the potential of young people and the barriers that remain between learning and earning. With WorkBridge, I want to measure success beyond the number of people trained. In the first pilot, I aim to reach 100 unemployed and underemployed young people, with at least 80 completing a skills pathway, 60 developing professional portfolios, and 40 gaining practical work-readiness or real-world project experience. I aim for at least 30 participants to access interviews, freelance opportunities, internships or paid projects, and at least 20 to secure paid work or begin generating income through their skills. The deeper impact will be helping young people move from dependence to opportunity and confidence. Every young person who turns a skill into income becomes more than an individual success story—they become proof to another young person that a different future is possible. Over time, WorkBridge will use these results to refine the model and expand it to more campuses and youth communities.

Your Innovation: What is different about your project compared to other programs or solutions already out there? How is your project new or innovative?

WorkBridge is different because it does not treat training as the final outcome. Many youth employment programs focus on teaching skills, but young people can still finish training without a portfolio, practical experience, professional networks or a clear pathway to paid work. WorkBridge is designed around what happens after learning. Our innovation is a connected “skills-to-work” pathway: Learn → Prove → Experience → Connect → Earn. Young people will not simply receive training and certificates. They will build portfolios and practical projects that demonstrate their abilities, receive mentorship and work-readiness support, gain experience through real-world assignments, and connect directly with employers, organizations, entrepreneurs and clients. We will also use technology and existing digital platforms as tools for access rather than treating technology as the solution itself. Participants can use platforms such as LinkedIn and legitimate freelancing marketplaces to showcase their work and find opportunities, while WorkBridge helps them understand how to navigate these spaces professionally and safely. Another difference is how we measure success. Instead of celebrating only enrollment, attendance or certificates, we will track the transition from learning to opportunity: portfolios created, practical experiences completed, interviews and opportunities accessed, paid projects secured, and participants who begin earning from their skills. My experience training young people in digital skills and freelancing showed me that the biggest opportunity is not simply to create more training—it is to build the missing bridge between training and dignified work. WorkBridge is designed to be that bridge.

How many people are on your team?

4

Your team: What role(s) do your team members play? How do you share leadership with them?

Our founding team will have four members, including me. I will lead the project and oversee strategy, partnerships and youth mobilization. A Skills & Training Lead will coordinate learning pathways and mentors. A Partnerships & Employment Lead will build relationships with employers, organizations and clients to create work opportunities. A Communications & Community Lead will manage outreach, storytelling and participant engagement. We will make decisions collaboratively, with each member leadi

What’s Next: What are the next steps you plan to take to grow or strengthen your project over the next year? If your project is still in the idea stage, describe the steps you will take over the next three months to launch or begin developing it.

Over the next three months, I will move WorkBridge from an idea into a tested pilot. First, I will engage unemployed and underemployed young people to better understand their biggest barriers to accessing dignified work and use their feedback to refine the model. I will then assemble the founding team and identify mentors with expertise in digital skills, career development, freelancing and recruitment. Next, I will establish partnerships with training organizations, universities, employers, startups and youth-focused organizations that can contribute skills, mentorship, practical projects and employment pathways. We will develop the first WorkBridge skills-to-work pathway and recruit an initial cohort of 100 young people. During the pilot, participants will build market-ready skills, portfolios and practical experience while receiving mentorship and connecting with potential employers and clients. We will track outcomes such as portfolio completion, practical projects, interviews, freelance opportunities and paid work. After the pilot, we will use participant and partner feedback to improve the model, document success stories and develop a scalable framework that can be introduced through other universities and youth communities. My long-term goal is to grow WorkBridge into a sustainable network connecting young people to skills, experience, networks .

How do you encourage other people to join your project or learn about the problem you’re working on? If you have a new idea, tell us how you will do this in the future.

WorkBridge is still at the idea stage, but my previous work with young people has taught me that people engage most when they can see how an issue connects to their own lives and when they are given an opportunity to act. Through my experience training young people in digital skills and freelancing, as well as mobilizing students through my work as an ALX Campus Brand Ambassador, I have seen the power of practical learning, community and peer-to-peer engagement. To build WorkBridge, I will begin by creating a community of young people who can share their experiences of unemployment and the barriers they face after training. I will use campus networks, youth organizations, social media, workshops and storytelling to start conversations around the gap between skills and dignified work. Participants will not only learn about the problem; they will become part of the solution. Young people will share opportunities, support one another, participate in practical projects and connect their peers to mentors and employers. I will also engage trainers, employers, entrepreneurs and youth organizations as partners and advocates. As WorkBridge grows, I want every participant who benefits to become an ambassador who can bring another young person into the network. In this way, project can grow through a community of young people helping other young people move from skills to income