Guinea: Facilitating Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship

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Organized in three stages, the competition first offered free entrepreneurship training to 100 young beneficiaries with innovative projects. After this training, the top 25 among them were able to move on to an intensive eight-week course to help them enhance their projects and develop a business plan. A nine-member jury including business owners, entrepreneurs, and bankers then selected the 10 most innovative projects to receive technical support from an incubator over 12 months.

Personalized coaching from business owners was among the most valued modules, with the key element being advice aimed at providing a better understanding of the opportunities and challenges associated with the Guinean private sector. 'This training provided me with specific technical skills needed to become an entrepreneur,' states Mohamed. 'I hope to be able to produce as much, if not more, honey than beekeepers in other countries in the subregion within three years! With a lot of perseverance and hard work, I can be successfully self-employed and self-supporting.'

Moreover, in order to ensure the quality of the course offerings in higher education institutions, the project also helped create a national quality assurance agency to oversee the quality of university programs and financed with $5.4 million USD 15 higher education and training institutions.

'The Stepping Up Skills Project seeks, among other objectives, to improve the effectiveness of training programs in universities and vocational institutions and to provide professional opportunities to young, job-seeking graduates by strengthening their skills through training, internships, jobs, or personalized support for business creation,' emphasizes Assane Dieng, World Bank Education Specialist. 'The World Bank invests heavily in human capital and we are working tirelessly to help Guinea respond to the employment challenges facing its youth.'

In total, more than 20,000 young people have benefited from this project, including 18,000 in pre-service training (vocational and university-level) and over 2,800 unemployed graduates.