Roadmap serra titiz final

SERRA TITIZ GDN YOUTH PLATFORM / THE FUTURE IS BRIGHTER TURKEY, ASHOKA FELLOW 2013 http://www.gelecekdaha.net/?lng=en https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/serra-titiz

PROBLEM Every year 120 million young people enter the workforce. And 80% can't find jobs. Youth unemployment rates are increasing. Turkey has the largest youth population of all EU countries, with half of the 75 million population under 30 years of age. Youth unemployment rate in Turkey is 19%.

70% of university graduates don't work in the areas they've studied. The lack of career orientation, the traditional teaching approach disproving analytical and critical thinking in students and the disconnection from the job market leave youth discouraged, unaware of opportunities and afraid of the future. Later, this results in low on the job productivity and high early dropouts due to an inappropriate job matching or even lack of important soft and work skills.

IMPACT GDN launched its first pilot activities in early 2009 in collaboration with a number of high schools and universities in selected provinces in Turkey.

So far, more than 2500 students and youth benefitted from GDN’s services, 94% of them declaring a high degree of satisfaction. Right now GDN has 795 volunteers, 342 mentors and 12 coaches. More than 211 e-mentoring session have been delivered, as well as a total of 605 hours of online training, while 364 videos have been uploaded, 184 of which from educational institutions.

SOLUTION GDN Youth Platform is a 'one-stop-shop’ which both empowers and enables high school and university students to be selfdetermined individuals and to make informed life, education and career choices. For this, Serra capitalises on Turkey’s high Internet penetration where 45% of internet users consist of young people aged under 25, who spend up to 3 hours on internet per day and combines online and offline counseling, mentoring, coaching and skills development in a unique simple solution. Through an online platform GDN connects young students directly to companies, universities and professionals, opening their eyes to the options available and providing firsthand stories of success. Youth can access all online services free of charge, anytime and anywhere, reaching out to youth irrespective of their economic or social status.

To connect youth with the labour market, Serra involves hundreds of role models, organizations and companies as voluntary contributors and mentors, and produces dozens of videos of different professionals. Youth can watch these online for free, learn about different vocations and are then redirected to specific additional information or to a mentorship program.

In addition, GDN latest module, “Find Your Profession”, lets youth fill out online surveys and then directs them to existing education and career opportunities which best fit their answers to questions regarding their talents, passions and dreams.

VISION

While most youth in Turkey are brought up being taught to refrain from asking questions and passively follow the choices adults make for them, GDN envisions a society where young people realise their full potential and are supported in becoming self-determined, proactive and well informed members of society. GDN aims to enable better matching of young people to a career which will not only bring them greater personal satisfaction, but which will enable them to better contribute to society. For this, in addition to its online services, GDN has also started to facilitate offline forums and workshops countrywide to enable high schools and universities to replicate GDN approach.

By 2017, Serra aims to reach over 10 000 youth in Turkey and start scaling the GDN approach in at least one other country in order to start building a global movement supporting youth and better job matching for positive growth and inclusive development.

ROADMAP SERRA TITIZ

With the support of

ROADMAP SERRA TITIZ SCALING STRATEGY With the support of THIS WORKS program, and having received interest from organisations and individuals worldwide, Serra is now looking into the opportunity of scaling GDN model beyond Turkey’s borders. For this, she has been working with her team on optimizing the existing model in Turkey and is currently discussing with partners in Italy, Spain, Greece, as well as Egypt and Portugal the idea of starting pilots in these countries. These discussions could potentially develop into a social franchising model, relying on local partners who know well the local market, stakeholders and funding opportunities and have the capacity to adapt GDN tools, translate the various materials.

The central GDN team would ensure support to local teams and develop international programs, while the partners would adapt the website to their audience, business partners and local marketing. Serra is constantly looking for local organisations working with youth, corporate volunteers or university alumni, as well as public institutions.

In the future, with these partners she aims to create an interactive global community of youth, companies and educational institutions committed to advancing youth’s development and tailored and meaningful carrer options.

SHOWCASE

FIND PARTNERS

SCALE

MEASURE LOCAL IMPACT

SCALING GDN YOUTH PLATFORM IN ITALY Robert Bosch Italy has first shown interest in Serra’s work in 2014 and agreed to support her in scaling GDN locally. In January 2015 Serra participated in an event organized by Robert Bosch in Milan in the framework of “Allenarsi per il future” initiative and Roberto Zecchino, HR Director agreed to act as Serra’s local Strategic Advisor, connecting her with partners and collaborators in Italy. Following Ashoka’s “Innovate to Restart” event on February 27, with Roberto’s support, Serra met various interested organizations and potential partners such as Monster, Este, Humangest, Jobadvisor, Randstad, Junior Achievement Italia.

As a result, she is currently following up with Robert Bosch Italy, who have pledged to finance a pilot scaling initiative and with Randstad, who would ensure the local implementation in Italy, gather experiences from local professionals, adapt the web platform and connect with youth. The start of the pilot is foreseen for the next months.

SCALING GDN YOUTH PLATFORM IN SPAIN With the support of Ashoka Spain, Serra is also discussing with several local organisations about transferring parts of her model in Spain. In particular, through a competition organised by Ship2b, a local team decided to start a new project called hub4junior, inspired also by Serra’s platform in Turkey. Ship2b, who is incubating this project is currently in contact with Serra and are discussing how to better transfer and adapt the methodology of GDN.

SCALING GDN YOUTH PLATFORM IN GREECE At the invitation of Ashoka Greece, Serra participated in „Ashoka Changemakers Day – Empowering Young Changemakers“ event co-hosted with the City of Thessaloniki and the Metropolitan Development Agency of Thessaloniki in September 2014. On this occasion she had the opportunity to meet several local organisations interested to discover her work and discuss potential collaborations. Ashoka Greece is currently following up on the potential of these discussions.

Should you be interested in helping Serra to scale in one of these three countries or partner with her, write to Ashoka Spain – comunicacion@ashoka.org, Ashoka Italy - italy@ashoka.org or Ashoka Greece – ashokagreece@ashoka.org !

With the support of