Recruit Youth Teams

Identify and recruit young people aged 18–24 who are interested in entrepreneurship or solving community problems. Work with schools, youth organisations, and community groups to reach participants.

Form small teams of around 3–5 people. Each team should have a shared interest in developing a project or business idea.

Clearly communicate that the programme focuses on practical learning, experimentation, and teamwork. Participants should be prepared to test ideas and learn from failure.

Collect basic information on participants’ interests and goals. This helps match participants into teams and tailor support.

Begin with an orientation session to explain programme expectations, timeline, and outcomes.

Run Ideation Workshop

Start the programme with a workshop focused on identifying meaningful problems and developing initial ideas.

Guide participants to explore real challenges in their communities or daily lives. Encourage them to define a clear target user and context.

Help teams develop a simple solution idea and identify key assumptions that need testing.

Introduce basic tools such as problem statements, user profiles, and hypothesis framing.

By the end of this stage, each team should have a clear idea, a defined problem, and a plan for testing their assumptions.

Guide Validation Process

Support teams as they test their ideas through structured validation activities.

Encourage them to conduct simple research such as interviews, surveys, or small experiments. They may also create basic prototypes or test pricing and demand.

Provide templates and regular check-ins to keep teams accountable and on track.

Facilitators should help teams interpret their findings and decide whether to refine, pivot, or continue their idea.

This stage builds critical thinking and helps participants understand how real-world feedback shapes better solutions.

Provide Seed Funding

Allocate small seed funding to each team to support experimentation and early testing.

Funds can be used for prototyping, materials, small-scale production, or market testing activities.

Encourage teams to use the funding strategically to learn as much as possible about their idea.

Support teams in tracking how funds are used and what insights they gain from their experiments.

This step reinforces practical learning and allows participants to move beyond theory into real-world action.

Pitch and Reflect

Conclude the programme with a final workshop where teams present their ideas and learning.

Each team should deliver a short pitch outlining the problem, solution, validation results, and next steps.

Facilitators provide feedback and encourage reflection on what worked and what could be improved.

Capture key outputs such as pitch decks, validation summaries, and future plans.

After the programme, share outcomes and success stories to inspire others. Encourage teams to continue developing their ideas or apply their new skills to future opportunities.