Our Interventions
Our interventions span across life skills training, career development and academic support for secondary school students; entrepreneurial and business management training for tertiary education students, NYSC members, existing business owners and individuals in the corporate world; work readiness and employability training.
BRIDGE BROGRAM
The SOSF Bridge program exposes youth in state secondary schools through workshops deployed by trained school teachers/trainers and opportunities through partners and mentors to build them on;
a. Life Skills;
These competencies (communication, problem solving, critical thinking, leadership, self-management, confidence building, citizenship development) are developed through interactive workshops with the aim of enhancing participants’ future university experience and long-term career/business prospects.
b. Career Awareness and Skills Development:
SOSF Bridge program have a standardized means of deploying career resources in schools. This is dependent on the outcome of the baseline studies in state to ascertain it needs. Emphasis are made in State(s) with very low literacy and numeracy levels to improve the academic component than the Career awareness component of the Bridge program.
c. Academic Skills:
States with low numeracy and literacy levels, emphasis are made on the Academic skills component of the Bridge program.
d. Technical, Vocational and Enterprise Skills
Finally, a social change project is organized at the end of the project cycle to allow participants apply the skills they have learnt in presenting a solution to the challenge.
CAREER AWARENESS AND SKILLSDEVELOPMENT
This encompasses:
I. Career Awareness & Preparation:
My Career and My Education Workshop: A series of three workshops as detailed above to enable participants map out their future educational, entrepreneurial and career paths. Each student is
expected to keep a personal development planner throughout the duration of the project, and set goals and milestones (with the support of the series of life skills workshops
II. Mentoring
One-on-One Mentoring: Career mentor(s) are assigned based on participants’ career interests to guide them and interact with their parents/guardians to clarify misconceptions about careers.
This increases the participants’ aspirations, provides them with on-going first-hand information on their future career paths and changing industry dynamics from professionals in their industries/sectors of interest.
III. Career Mentoring Open Day: Comprising of the following activities:
Career Showcase: Students showcase sketches and write-ups of their career choices. This exercise helps them to undertake preliminary research to get them started.
Career Mentor Sessions: Students meet with mentors for
one-on-one discussions. Parents/guardians in attendance can also join.
Creative Corner Showcase: Students showcase all the products they designed e.g. beads, clothes, hand-made handbags & liquid soaps, etc.
Social Change Project Showcase: Students present theirsocial change projects.
IV. Career Resources:A Day in the Life of a Professional:
This is a video recording of a processionals daily routine using thenecessary tools/equipment or resources to carry out task as it relates to the profession example A Day in the Life of a Surgeon requires the surgeon to record his daily activity explaining tools needed to achieve his task as a surgeon etc. This career resource provide virtual guidance to students whoaspire to take such career path.
Career Insight Opportunities: Students are taken on a day long insight day to organizations across a range of industries e.g. media, law, music, fashion, healthcare, engineering, finance, accounting, catering, ICT etc.
This provides;
i. First-hand knowledge on the workplace or the dynamics of the work environmentii. insight for our entrepreneurial students seeking to understand how markets and industries work.Volunteer trainers or program staff supervise all visits. We work with over 50 career insight organizations.
c. Academic Skills:
Through Interactive workshops they are trained onrevision techniques, literacy, numeracy, Time management and Exam prep. They are also given access to study guides and learning resources.
d. Technical, Vocational and Enterprise Skills;
Through interactive workshops they are trained on skills needed to start an enterprise (business ideation, financial management, etc.) The technical and vocational skills training is deployed throughpartners. At the end of the program, participants would be given the opportunity to pitch for startup capital for the technical/ vocational skills they have learnt
Other Activities SS3 Next Steps:
This is a session run for all project alumni who are in their final year prior to graduation to;
I. Provide a refresher on the employability skills learnt
II. Revisit and finalize student pathways be it applications to tertiary institutions,
alternative apprenticeship schemes or setting up enterprises
III. Explore financial management and income generation ideas especially as many of the students come from challenging socio-economic backgrounds and would therefore need to find feasible and responsible ways to raise personal finances to fund school, work or business
IV. Explore available opportunities, initiatives or activities to pursue upon graduation.
Skills for Change Project:
The Skills for Change project provides a platform for participants to apply and demonstrate the newly acquired skills learnt through a social change project whereby each student is required to identify a social problem, proffer an innovative solution and present a plan of action to implement this solution.
These are showcased during the career mentoring open day, subjected to the scrutiny of judging panel and the most innovative ideas are awarded. SOSF CONNECT: After the completion of the Bridge program, alumni (ex-students) who are referred to as ambassadors are given further opportunities called ‘SOSF CONNECT’, where ambassadors (alumni) are continuously supported to
sustain action plans or start new initiatives.
HEADSTART PROGRAM
The SOS Headstart is the entrepreneurship focused programme. The program is an integrated business start-up and scale intervention incorporating training, mentoring, funding, networking and advisory services.
SOS Headstart is an ENABLER for micro, small and medium enterprises. Our focus is equipping SMEs with the skills, resources and knowledge to succeed in today’s economy and in the future of work and enterprise, particularly in COVID19 times, and supported to build businesses that can solve problems, grow, remain sustainable, and ultimately, contribute to the economy by improving theGDP, payment of taxes, ensuring productivity and job creation.
At the core of our objectives is promoting economic growth in Nigeria, generating jobs, mainstreaming the informal sector to contribute to the GDP.
The SOS Headstart Program has 3 projects:
- Online Skill Up for Business
- Headstart for Industrialpreneur
- Designing thinking and Innovation Lab
Online Skill up For Business;
is an enterprise skills development online training designed for Entrepreneur to conceptualize, start or grow businesses through immersive individual and peer-to-peer learning using our curated &
exclusive content delivered by experienced instructors, business challenges with prizes to support your businesses and access to our
unique Trello & Slack based ENTERPRISE COLLABORATION
LOUNGE for Entrepreneurs to network, access funding, opportunities, business tools, a marketplace, business mentors, service providers/experts and continuous training.
HEADSTART FOR INDUSTRIALPRENEUR
The headstart for industrialpreneur is focused on industries such as mining, agriculture, trade, food, manufacturing, transport and storage, health, tourism and hospitality, telecom and information services and professional services and education, with high value economic activities and need for innovation to create new markets for job creation, value addition and capture driven by micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
For a start, we are focused on the agricultural industry which we call Headstart for Agropreneurs.
The Headstart for Agroprenuers intervention is focused on entrepreneurial clusters in the agriculture sector through community associations and cooperatives providing training, funding and advisory to achieve productivity of small and medium scale farmers and improve value addition along priority value chains in states across the country.
- SOSF acts as a channel for structured intervention leveraging on experts and partners, whilst providing business training, crowding funding and advisory support. We deliver this intervention in 2 phases
Phase One: which is focused on training farmers on improved business and technical skills for increased crop yield production and access to inputs in cooperatives. The crop selection process is based on baseline finding of the most economic crop within the state eg cassava and plantain in Rivers, Oyo and Akwa Ibom.
Phase Two: and in phase 2 which is the harvest season is focused on post implementation of phase 1, identifying a value-added product to process crops into, accessing finance to process, brand, market and sell the finished product. Farmers will be trained on how to the handle food processing and packaging at the plant that prepares and brands finished goods for distribution within the domestic market.
SOSF leverages on experts and partners to provide various advisory and technical support such as Child and Green Foundation, our local partner providing advisory service and Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) which provides technical skills training for the Farmers on best Agronomic practices.
To evaluate and monitor the progress of the Agroprenuer intervention on a quarterly basis by the Field Officers and M and E Intern who pay periodic visits to their farms and cooperative meeting. The pilot edition of the Agroprenuer intervention phase 1, took place on 5th February, 2021 to 9th February, 2021 where 120 Farmers of Etche Community were trained with business and Technical skills on how to improve crop production.
In the end, SOSF is focused on the development of industrial agro based mini hubs across the country leveraging on existing cooperative structure for aggregation to achieve scale. Ultimately, the goal is to increase the productivity of small and medium scale Farmers and improve value addition along priority value chains in states across the country. Overtime, other sectors will be explored.
Design Thinking and Innovation Lab:
Intensive workshop for corporates and professionals to develop innovative solutions for their organizations through ideation, collaboration critical thinking and problem-solving
FUNDING
There are various forms of capital which our participants and ambassadors can take advantage of:
- Grant for Individuals: where small holder farmers are empowered with little funding to support in their farm activities. The criteria for gaining access to such funding is participating in the weekly group activities hosted on the Whatsapp group.
- Loan Credit facility through NIRSAL GeoCooperative: this is a financing opportunity sponsored by CBN and Sterling and managed by NIRSAL.
- Loan Facility: capital shared through BOI, BOA,
Initiatives and Challenges is SOSF’s strategic and innovative intervention for her programs to ensure sustainability of same. It is responsible for drawing a delicate balance between the programmes and institutionalization through data and advocacy while working with the relevant stakeholders (partners) to embed and institutionalize SOSF programmatic interventions.
The SOSF Initiatives & Challenges hinges on these;
Our Activities:
- INNOVATION
Programme have a definitive life cycle and end. In order to be able to sustain our vision of “a productive human capital continuously”, ensuring that our programmes outlives us and are impactful is key to the initiative and challenges activities.
Innovation channel;
Individuals (equipping individuals) SOSF sparks innovation in individuals by helping them birth their own innovations. The goal is to equip individuals to be able to address the challenges they see in their communities. When these results are aggregated then the impact can be seen and felt widely.
Innovation at the individual level is achieved through business and social entrepreneurship leveraging on experts and partners to carry out innovative solutions to solve challenges in the society;
Business Entrepreneurship
The Lead4Change Innovators is an annual programme under business entrepreneurship where exceptional young people (innovators) from around the country will converge to hone their critical thinking and problem solving expertise, make valuable connections and gain the skills to make sustainable impact. The programme aims at recognizing the top most innovative solutions whilst bringing young innovators together to lead change through innovative businesses in their areas of interest. The Lead4Change Innovators programme is organized in three phases thus;
ENTREPRENUERSHIP: Capacity Development Series (leveraging on traditional & social media to deliver need-base skills to entrepreneurs) are used to deploy the Online Skillup for Business and the Agropreneurs programs.
Online Skillup for Business (OSB) – “So you think you are an entrepreneur”? OSB was designed from a need to continuously equip entrepreneurs or intending entrepreneurs in the light of Covid with a rising need to upscale their business skills to survive in today’s economy. OSB program is designed for entrepreneurs to conceptualize, start and scale their businesses.
Agropreneur – Farming on Radio: Agropreneur seeks to educate farmers with the requisite knowledge and information needed to produce, process and brand their products for the market. Through the Agropreneur intervention, farmers are trained in the application of
the inputs required to increase yields and harvest crops more efficiently.
EDUCATION: Leveraging on traditional & social media to educate and inform individuals through Capacity Development Series on life skills, career skills, academic skills, enterprise, technology and vocational skills which includes general and subject specific learning.
Social Entrepreneurship:
- The CovidWISE Competition is a program under social entrepreneurship which aims to provide innovative individuals with a platform for collaboration, prototyping and launch of their product through seed funding and networks which will improve their ability to birth sustainable solutions to challenges in their environment leading to long term social impact. CovidWISE seeks to support individuals to be social ntrepreneurs in addressing issues that have risen as an effect to the covid-19 pandemic.
Ambassadors Challenge:
aims to enable SOSF Ambassadors to utilize the knowledge garnered over the years to build sustainable ventures, continually engage and do more beyond the status quo.
– SOSF (focusing on SOSF interventions):
How can we do better at the way we intervene? The answer lies in ensuring continuous innovation of SOSF programs in delivery methodologies to ensure that her interventions align with the needs and standards of the 21st century. SOSF therefore seeks to innovate around the conventional ways of delivering learning.
The innovation is ebbed in our approach – leveraging on traditional and social media to impact knowledge on individuals. The goal is to reach as much people as possible and also capturing people that would have been neglected through the conventional means of knowledge delivery. Innovation at the organisational level is achieved through;
INSTITUTIONALIZATION
Theunderlying objective of our interventions to ensure they are mainstreamed and stand the test of time beyond the duration of programs. This was exemplified in our work with UNICEF on the bridge program – life skills. SOSF therefore seeks to institutionalize the following thematic programs which forms the basis of her existence;
PARTNERSHIPS
Partnerships for the goals (SDGs) by enabling and or working with other organisations with the same mandate to carry out development/interventions. Programmes require data which is an essential instrument in achieving the partnership SOSF seek. The
question then is;
- How do we get and collect the right data?
- How do we use data to inform, educate and enable other organisations to carry out interventions and or inform their own efforts?
Through;
How can SOSF use select reports based on her thematic areas; Education, Employability and Entrepreneurship to provide data for people that can be used to inform their efforts?
Through;
Seeing that data can do more than drive programmes, propel and drive initiatives, SOSF is determined to reach stakeholders to make changes that will enable policies to be implemented through one of her pillars; Advocacy.
Over the years we have partnered and worked with several organizations such as;
AREA I and Open Fees Foundation while planning to carry out their capacity development series, Area I and Open Fees Foundation reached out to SOSF because their program was in line with SOSFs Life Skills training under the Bridge Program to implement a training program
for adult – women
MTN Yello Women reached out to SOSF to implement a series for women on personal development encompassing developing self and the different ways of handling womanhood.
British Council reached out to SOSF while planning a training for university lecturers around how they can think about their career and employability outcome and how they can mainstream their knowledge
into their teaching methodology and mentorship for the benefits of their
students and others.
IRSD reached out to SOSF as enablers of social entrepreneurs to do a talk on SOSF’s journey through entrepreneurship and how SOSF designed her programmes.
Key Impact of SOSF Initiatives thematic areas:
INNOVATION
- We have deployed the Ambassadors challenge with our annual innovation challenge in the works and SOS connect, a 243 strong platform for continuous capacity building and engagement of our ecosystem of beneficiaries.
- Our beneficiaries have deployed meaningful businesses and social change projects including Online platform with Q&A for senior secondary students on difficult subjects, Abuja Entertainment Hub, an FCT events planning platform, Silent Stars that supports youths with hearing disabilities with sign language training, Public speaking and confidence skills training for youth church members, member of the ECOWAS youth parliament, Shea butter export business to Germany and the US.
- Our bridge students have participated in the EdTech Africa 360 Design Thinking Competition, United States Education Sector Achievers Program, Eagle Hope Foundation’s Leadership Summer Camp, New Horizons Web Design Boot Camp, Afrihub/Global Distance Learning Centre Computer Training, Visiola Foundation STEM Summer camp, MIT/Harvard University Impact Labs Summer Camp,Oxford Cambridge Africa Mentorship Program (OXCAMP).
INSTITUTIONALIZATION
- Wehave led the development of manuals, implementation framework and content forthe roll out of the UNICEF led Girls Empowerment Programme aimed at ensuringgirls enroll and complete their education through the girls4girls clubs andhe4she clubs training and reorienting young boys to be gender sensitive. Theprogram also aims to mainstream life skills training across 300 schools in 18LGAs.
- Wehave built capacity of 212 teachers across 10 states including FCT, Adamawa,Bauchi, Borno, Kaduna, Kano, Niger, Sokoto, Yobe, Zamfara to deliver our bridgeprogram and the UNICEF led girls 4 girls program set to reach over 15000 girlsacross 300 schools in 18 LGAs.
- Wehave delivered 790 skills training hours and 2000 mentoring hours in over 32career sectors. oWehave deployed leadership capacity building to 230 prefects.
PARTNERSHIPS
- We have deployed career development information to students from various schools in Abuja during the 2016 23rd career counseling and youth awareness workshop by vision 2020 Yeri.
- We have deployed life and character development to 346 girls through the UNICEF girl’s empowerment program.
- We have deployed Career insight opportunities through partnerships with 58 organizations & individuals.
- We have deployed life skills training program for adult – women through partnerships with Area I and Open Fees Foundation.
- We have deployed a series for women on personal development through partnership with MTN Yello Women.
- We were invited to speak on how SOSF designs her programmes and her journey through entrepreneurship in partnership with IRSD.
- We are in the process of deploying the CovidWise Ideation Awards through partnership with Copenhagen Business School.
Initiatives
Interventions deployed as standalone activities or conceptualized and led by partners with similar mandates
• Capacity Development and Training
• Curriculum Design & Development
Challenges
Online activities to drive innovation, design thinking, continual learning and implementation of acquired skills and knowledge.
Ambassadors Challenge
Innovation Challenge
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