In March, Mastercard Foundation launched a $100m initiative to create more jobs in Rwanda
MasterCard Foundation – a leading organization that funds employment projects in different parts of the world has announced plans to equip 10,000 Rwandan teachers in its education initiative.
Through the ‘Leaders in Teaching initiative’, the Foundation will train 8, 250 new teachers, 2,250 head teachers, and engage 600 young people into the teaching profession. As a result, 250,000 secondary students will benefit over the next five years.
The $50million initiative is part of the foundation’s $190million program in Rwanda alone of the 29 African countries out of the 45 around the world in course of 11 years. The foundation committing $2.1 billion to financial inclusion, education, and youth employment programs since 2006.
The center will be the first of its kind in Rwanda, MasterCard Foundation officials told KT Press.
The foundation also said plans are underway to provide 35,000 scholarships committed for Africa students with 1200 of them going to Rwanda’s FAWE Girls schools for students to get high quality education and 125 scholarships to Carnegie Melon University and 500 scholarships to the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) in Rwanda.
Student beneficiaries to these scholarships will be selected based on: academic excellence in school, leadership commitment to give back to community, and an economic disadvantaged background, according to Shona Bezanson, the foundation’s Associate Director Scholars Program.
In the tourism and hospitality skills training, the foundation also plans to change the attitude of the sector trainings model after 18 months of research and diagnosis of what the sector needs
Rica Rwigamba – the Foundation’s Program Manager Youth Livelihoods at MasterCard, told KT Press that 30,000 youths in the sector will be trained with 17,000 of them being new entrants as addition to the 13,000 already in the practice.
“The objective is to change mindsets to ensure that training partners provide skills which will match with the needs of the employers. We don’t want people to join the sector without knowing what it requires,” Rwigamba said.
The foundation officials said that the successful implementation of the Rwanda initiatives will largely contribute to creation of jobs both locally and globally.
Available figures indicate that unemployment in Rwanda stands at 17.8 percent as of 2017, according to National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda (NISR).
To curb the vice, government has set a target to create 1.5million jobs in country’s next seven-year program (2017-2024).
Social Venture Challenge
Meanwhile, MasterCard, it will this week award the next-generation African leaders who are competing in the Social Venture Challenge to receive a fellowship that includes seed funding of $5000 each and mentorship.
The competition, now in its third edition starting August 9-11, 2018 in Kigali provides a pathway to action for socially responsible young leaders who want to create change in their communities.
Winners will be selected out of the 71 entries made of 30 team of African youths leaders of which this time Rwandans didn’t make it among the 272 entries that submitted their proposals despite winning in the 2017 edition.
Three Rwandans were among the winners of the ten 2017 cohort of Social Venture Challenge which includes projects based in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Rwanda, and the United States.
