News

UNGEI Blog: Young Mothers Need Dignity and Agency

In a recent UN Girls'​ Education Initiative (UNGEI) interview, Hellen Namisi, our Director of Program Implementation for SkillUp, sheds light on the challenges faced by young mothers in rural areas of East Africa and shares the transformative impact of Educate!'s livelihood bootcamps.

Educate! Collaborates with Global Leaders in Developing 'How to Scale with Government' Toolkit

Based on our experience working alongside governments to support education reforms, Educate! joined 58 global leaders to share insights in ‘How to Scale with Government,’ a policy toolkit developed by Global School Leaders. The toolkit features actionable steps to scale impactful solutions, collaborate with governments, and influence education policy.

Building Innovative Livelihood Bootcamps to Empower Girls and Young Women: A Conversation with the World Bank

As part of a video series hosted by the World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE), Educate!’s Director of Institutional Partnerships, Rachel Temoi, sat down to talk about how we are leveraging iteration to tailor livelihood bootcamps to meet the needs of girls and young women who are out of school in East Africa. Watch the recording.

Educate! Model Highlighted in Joint World Bank-ILO-UNESCO Report

Educate! was cited in a joint report by the World Bank, ILO, and UNESCO, titled "Building Better Formal TVET Systems." The report references Educate!’s model and highlights how a focus on foundational skills for self-employment can inform the field of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). The evidence shows that the acquisition of transferable and entrepreneurial skills, built through practical learning, can support youth in and outside of the traditional education system.

Education Leaders Unite to Shape 'Future-ready Students' at Teach For All Conference

At the 2023 Teach For All Global Conference, Educate!’s Sylvia Mwangi, Head of National Programs - Community Service Learning, joined panelists from Mastercard Foundation, Junior Achievement Africa, Gebeya Inc., Teach for All, and Africa Leadership Academy for a session titled “Future-ready Students.” Together, the group discussed learnings and experiences in preparing students with the mindset, knowledge, and skills to thrive in future careers while making a positive impact on their communities and beyond.

Sam Spotlights Key Features of CAMIS at KIX Symposium

Educate!'s Director of Technology, Samson Mbugua, was invited to present at the 2nd KIX Continental Symposium on Education Research in Africa: “Strengthening Data Generation and Analysis for Resilient, Inclusive, and Better Performing Education Systems in Sub-Saharan Africa.” We were thrilled to shine a spotlight on the Comprehensive Assessment Management Information System (CAMIS), a new technology platform that is paving the way for a more dynamic, relevant, and effective education system in Rwanda.

Representatives from Educate! Join RELI Kenya Country Convening

As a member organization of RELI, the Regional Education Learning Initiative, individuals from Educate! attended the recent convening under the theme “Making Our Voice Count, Bringing New Strategy to Life.” At the event, Sylvia Mwangi, Head of National Programs - Community Service Learning and Ann Kabengi, Curriculum Specialist, presented on Community Service Learning (CSL). CSL is an Educate!-supported subject currently being developed in Kenya in order to engaging students in meaningful learning experiences through active participation in community projects.

Highlighting the Link Between Competency-based Learning and Assessment Practices

At the 2023 Association for Educational Assessment in Africa (AEAA) Conference, hosted by our partners at the Kenya National Examinations Council, Sylvia Mwangi, Educate!’s Head of National Programs - Community Service Learning, and Samson Mbugua, our Director of Technology, spoke about how Educate! is partnering with governments in East Africa to integrate technology into assessment management. The presentation focused on how this collaboration has driven the development of the Comprehensive Assessment Management Information System (CAMIS) in Rwanda.

Educate!’s Gender-Transformative Approach Featured in UNGEI Learning Brief

Launched at WomenDeliver2023 the UN Girls'​ Education Initiative (UNGEI) learning brief on ‘Ending Gender Stereotypes in Classrooms - Good Practices, Experiences and Lessons Learned’ contains emerging evidence from programs and research from 10 cases from 11 countries. Educate!’s strategies for embedding a gender-transformative approach into the Educate! Experience, our in-school solution for secondary students in Uganda, is highlighted in the brief.

GPE Blog: A lesson from Rwanda: the comprehensive assessment software that scores highly with teachers

A newly published Global Partnership for Education blog spotlights CAMIS, an innovative continuous assessment software created through a partnership between Educate! and the Rwandan government. As a nationally required tool for all secondary teachers in Rwanda, CAMIS offers an accessible new method for monitoring student progress over time to better support skills-based learning and drive sustained policy change. The World Bank invested $1.5M in the government’s roll-out.

Rwanda Country Director Named as Top 10 Finalist for Africa Education Medal

Rogers Patrick Kamugisha, Educate!'s Rwanda Country Director, has been shortlisted as a finalist for the Africa Education Medal. The award, which was founded by T4 Education in partnership with HP, honors individuals who have demonstrated exceptional impact, leadership, and advocacy in the field of education in Africa.

GYEO 2023: Educate! and Wezesha Impact Team Up to Reimagine Vocational and Secondary Education

At the 2023 Global Youth Economic Opportunities Summit in Washington, D.C., Alex Kelly, Educate!’s Global Director of Growth and Revenue, joined the executive director of Wezesha Impact in an interactive session exploring the increasing need for alternative pathways to employment for out-of-school youth. The summit, hosted by Making Cents International, convened a global community to examine the skills, programs, and policies needed to advance SDG 8.

Educate! Profiled in USAID Study: Promoting Practices in Engaging Youth and Higher Education Institutions in the COVID-19 Response

Educate!’s distance learning model was highlighted in a case study published by USAID in partnership with the University of Auckland. The study details what tools, guidance, and evidence the education sector used to support learners during the COVID-19 pandemic. Read the brief to learn more about the valuable and enduring lessons that are continuing to inform Educate!’s strategy.

Boris Speaks Alongside Fellow EdHeroes Advisory Board Members at the Forbes Philanthropy Summit

At the Forbes Philanthropy Summit in April 2023, Educate!’s CEO, Boris Bulayev, joined fellow EdHeroes Advisory Board members, including Harry Patrinos of the World Bank, in a session titled Leading the Global Economic Race: Growth through Education Innovation. Panelists discussed the global learning loss due to COVID-19, the potential of Edtech, and how to think about the tertiary education of the future.

Educate! Program Officer Joins Imaginable Future’s Fireside Chat: Listening and Building with Young People to Drive System Change

What do youth want? Alongside fellow young leaders from Kenya and South Africa, Educate!’s Beverly Nicole Adhiambo joined a conversation — hosted by our partners at Imaginable Futures — focused on listening to, trusting and elevating youth voices to create sustainable change. Pulling from their personal journeys, the speakers discussed the complexities of the systems they face and shared strategies, stories and solutions to inspire and support young people. Check out the recording.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Development Around the World

As part of the Council on Foreign Relations Young Professionals Briefing Series, Educate!’s CEO, Boris Bulayev, participated in a panel with individuals from VisionSpring, Trinity Church Wall Street, and Oliver Global to discuss the role of the private sector in promoting social responsibility, development, and change at scale around the world. Watch the video to hear Boris talk about how corporate entities can collaborate with nonprofit social enterprises, like Educate!, to build mutually-beneficial partnerships that drive impact.

Educate! Spotlighted in HundrED’s Global Collection 2023 Report

As the global development conversation increases focus on themes of education transformation, HundrED released its annual Global Collection, which highlights the brightest education innovations from around the world. Educate! is spotlighted as a HundrED Hall of Fame member, a category that gives special recognition to innovations that have demonstrated sustained growth and evidence of impact.

Educate! Quoted in New Report for Rewiring Education

A newly launched report, developed by the Education Commission and Dubai Cares RewirED, outlines six solutions that can drive progress in education while triggering mutually-beneficial impacts for people and the planet. Educate!’s CEO, Boris Bulayev, is quoted in the report, underscoring the importance of creating diverse routes for youth to build skills: “While we wait for access for all, we have a moral obligation to build alternative pathways that prepare youth for dignified employment.”

Educate! Joins Inaugural UN Feminist Coalition for Gender Transformative Education

The UN Girls’ Education Initiative brought together a first-of-its-kind Feminist Coalition for Gender Transformative Education at the Transforming Education Summit. Educate! was one of 22 organizations selected to join the coalition, a global alliance of civil organizations and youth activists striving to make a unified impact. At the event, our Uganda Country Director, Hawah Nabbuye, presented the top gender vulnerabilities faced by both boys and girls in Eastern and Southern Africa.

J-PAL Africa and the Population Council Webinar: Achieving Gender Equity in Education - Lessons from the Evidence

In an event hosted by J-PAL Africa and the Population Council, Educate!’s Director of Monitoring and Evaluation, Meghan Mahoney, participated in a webinar alongside individuals from the African Population and Health Research Center, the Center for Global Development, the Forum for African Women Educationalists, and UNICEF. During the discussion, which focused on working towards gender equity in education by 2030, Meghan shared strategies for implementers seeking to leverage existing evidence from successful girls' education interventions. Watch the recording.

World Bank S4YE Brief: Tech-enabled Tools for Youth Employment Practitioners

As one of the World Bank’s S4YE Impact Portfolio partners, Educate! shared our insights and learnings in a new brief: Using Digital Tools for Monitoring and Evaluation of Youth Employment Programs. Within the publication, Educate! detailed our approach to program monitoring and data collection, where we aim to quickly and cost-effectively collect, analyze, and share data across teams, all building towards improved efficiency and greater scale. Read the brief to learn how different organizations are leveraging technology to strengthen impact.

The Case for Complex, Yet Proven Opportunities in the Development Market

In an essay posted on the Effective Altruism Forum and shared by the World Bank’s David McKenzie, Richard Sedlmayr of Wellspring Philanthropic Fund highlights SEED, a 3-week bootcamp Educate! supported. In the piece, Richard uses the intervention as a counterexample in challenging philanthropists to consider solutions that are more complex, but offer potential rates of return that far exceed those of simpler global health chains, such as mosquito nets for malaria prevention. Read the piece to learn Richard’s rationale and strategy toward this stance.

Presenting Our Evidence-based Approach to Government Support on a Global Stage

Educate!'s Rwanda Country Director Kamanda Kamiri was invited to speak at Schools2030’s inaugural Global Forum in Tanzania alongside representatives from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, OECD, Instiglio, and VVOB. We were honored to contribute to this conversation in a discussion about the effective utilization of educational data and research by policymakers. Kamanda presented Educate!'s proven solutions and how we’re leveraging their rigorous evaluation results to provide technical advisory support to governments. Learn more about the event.

Educate! Named Top Org for Efforts 'Rethinking Education for Work'

We’re honored to have won an award at the 2022 Conference of Commonwealth Education Ministers in Nairobi, Kenya under the 'Rethinking Education for Work' category. Focused on inspiring educators and innovative projects, we are humbled to have been selected as one of six recipients amongst the 2,462 entries from 32 countries.

How Skills Training Can Boost Entrepreneurship and Job Creation

Principal Investigator of the Skills for Effective Entrepreneurship Development (SEED) intervention Paul Gertler shares the impact of an intensive skill-building experience on the VoxDev Development Economics podcast. Paul notes that, “Soft skills are a necessary element for hard skills to matter.” And that ultimately, this Educate!-supported 3-week bootcamp “had a massive effect on business creation. [Youth] created 500 more businesses than they would have without the training.” Listen in to hear a quick overview of the research that’s become the foundation of our out-of-school youth work.

Donnalee Explains Educate!’s Approach to Unlocking Youth Potential at Scale

At an International Academy of Technology, Education and Development (IATED) conference earlier this month, Policy and Partnerships Strategist Donnalee Donaldson presented Educate!’s approach to improving the quality of education youth receive: partnering with the government to co-design or reform a single secondary-level subject. Watch the video to hear Donnalee describe this strategy, its positive outcomes for graduates, and our latest set of solutions for youth who cannot access post-primary education.

World Bank Webinar: Fostering Socioemotional Skills

Educate!’s CEO & Co-founder Boris Bulayev presented our evidence-based approach to building socioemotional skills at scale in early March. Watch the recording to learn more about how we’re partnering with governments to embed our skills-focused model into national education systems and the impact of this work.

How a Clever Idea by Educate! Kept Students Learning Despite School Closures

In a recent interview with HundrED, Uganda Country Director Hawah Nabbuye shares her source of motivation and how her team continued to innovate amidst uncertainty. Hawah notes that “in 2020 we had almost reached parity in terms of the gender balance of students in school.” Then, “suddenly Covid became a new barrier, and it could have taken us several steps backwards.” Check out the piece to learn what Hawah and her team did next.

Educate! Presents at Global Education Conference RewirEd

We were honored to host an event at RewirEd 2021, The Great Debate: Universal Secondary Education For All vs. Alternative Pathways, which considered the value and viability of alternatives to formal secondary school. Educate! CEO and Co-founder Boris Bulayev moderated the discussion with Dzingai Mutumbuka of ADEA, Global Director of Education Robert Jenkins of UNICEF, Harry Anthony Patrinos of The World Bank, Maryanne Ochola of Shujaaz Inc, and Meghan Kellner of BRAC.

Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) invited us to participate in another event at the conference: The Journey to Scaling Education Innovations: The Ins and Outs, and the Ups and Downs. This panel featured examples from leading organizations that are scaling innovative, evidence-based programs to millions of learners around the world, including Educate!, Pratham, STIR Education, and VVOB.

Educate! Selected for HundrED Hall of Fame

Educate! was one of only 7 education innovations selected to the HundrED’s Hall of Fame for 2022. HundrED says: “The Hall of Fame was designed to give special recognition to innovations that have been selected at least three times to HundrED collections and have demonstrated sustained growth of impact and scalability of the last 5 years showing evidence of being responsive to the current needs in Education worldwide.”

Educate! Director Presents at UNESCO's Strategy-Setting TVET Conference

Sarah Ojulando-Ndinya, Director of Design and Experimentation, presented on the panel Skills for Inclusive and Resilient Societies, sharing Educate!’s approach to secondary school alternatives: bootcamps for out-of-school youth. We were honored to participate in this conference as UNESCO works to consider new directions and present the core elements of the new UNESCO Strategy for TVET 2022-2029.

USAID Features Educate!’s Impact in Soft Skills Literature Review

This brief of the full literature review examines the linkages between soft skills training and youth workforce development outcomes. The authors note a gap in soft skills research and feature the rigorous impact results of Educate! within the few organizations breaking ground in this important area of study. USAID explains that youth skill-building interventions are most effective when they’re built upon a strong evidence base, citing our impactful skills-focused experience as an example.

Scaling Up Skills-based Education & EdTech Solutions

Two of Educate!’s experts participated in webinars hosted by the Scaling Up Community of Practice, where we spoke about scaling solutions in Rwanda and Uganda.

Educate!'s Director of Monitoring and Evaluation Meghan Mahoney and thought leaders from Young1ove shared experiences and learnings as our organizations have worked to measure the effectiveness of “institutionalizing” models into existing education systems and processes. Meghan presented our journey collaborating with the Rwandan government to scale and sustain an innovative and evidence-based approach to secondary education.

Hellen Namisi, Educate!’s Acting Director of New Product Launch, shared our successes and challenges in pursuit of an impactful and scalable remote learning experience for youth in this webinar about scaling edtech alongside representatives of the Education Development Centre and The EdTech Hub.

J-PAL Highlights Educate!’s Impact on Girls’ Education Outcomes

J-PAL Africa highlights Educate! as it argues for investments in evidence-based interventions on the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) blog. The authors write that “effective approaches from across the world can provide a menu of promising interventions to invest in” and describe our impact as an example of an approach demonstrating strong results. Educate!’s model in Uganda “led to improved completion rates among girls; girls were also 11% more likely to be enrolled in tertiary education,” state the policy researchers. We wholeheartedly agree that impact evaluations should drive both innovation and investment and are committed to generating the evidence the education sector needs to improve life outcomes for young women and men.

Educate!'s Solution Featured on the Global Partnership for Education (GPE) Blog

At Educate!, we believe that secondary school is the most natural and cost-efficient space for youth to learn and practice the skills they’ll need to succeed in work and life. And rigorous external evaluations have shown that our experiential, skills-focused model delivered by our own staff, measurably impacts youth beyond the classroom years later — increasing their transferable skills, economic opportunities, agency in family planning, and views on gender equity, among others. In response to these results, we wondered: "Can we partner with governments to recreate this impact through the education system?" Read the blog on GPE.

World Bank Blog Feature: Educate!’s soft skills curriculum measurably impacts youth

Markus Goldstein, Africa Lead Economist and head of the Gender Innovation Lab at the World Bank, wrote about the evidence for our soft skills curriculum as implemented as part of a condensed, bootcamp format. In this blog, he shares the results of the 3-week bootcamp we helped run in 2013, which had 30%+ income gains three years later. He concludes, “Overall, this is a cool result – and one of the stronger I have seen for youth-oriented training.”

Educate! partners with the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation

The IFC, part of the World Bank Group, has worked with industry leaders to create a set of Principles for Learning and a Guide to Training for skills-development professionals working in emerging markets. Educate!, has partnered with IFC by becoming a Signatory to the initiative. The Principles represent the foundational qualities that make a performance improvement project effective and impactful, while the Guide to Training puts the Principles into action. The Principles reflect the four key elements of successful training and learning programs — they need to be impactful, inclusive, scalable, and sustainable.

Overcoming underrepresentation of women in remote data collection

Educate!’s Evaluation Associate Jess Littman wrote this piece, which was published in AEA365. This platform, sponsored by the American Evaluation Association, is a tip-a-day learning platform for evaluators across the globe. Jess’s piece highlights what our organization has learned over the past year in our efforts to better capture the perspectives of women and girls in our evaluations.

Head of External Relations Joins Panel on Girls’ Education and Climate Change

Educate!’s Head of External Relations Rachael Miller Buck participated in an event hosted by the Atlassian Foundation alongside Christina Kwauk, Nonresident Fellow at the Brookings Institution and Associate Director of the Monitoring and Evaluation of Climate Change Education Project (MECCE); Teach For All’s Global Director of Girls’ Education, Samantha Williams; and Lucina Di Meco, Senior Director of Girls’ Education and Gender Equality at Room to Read for a panel on girls’ education and climate change. The panel offered Atlassian’s global staff insights into how the foundation’s grantee partners are improving girls’ education and how climate change, education, and gender intersect.

Building and assessing youth skills remotely during COVID-19: The experience of Educate! in East Africa

In this World Bank webinar, our own Boris Bulayev, Meghan Mahoney, and Hellen Namisi presented our approach to building a comprehensive skill set for youth, how we adapted our flagship model for low-tech remote delivery and skills assessment amidst widespread school closures, and shared the lessons we have learned thus far.

EdHeroes Forum: The Power of Skills and the Impact of Families

We came together with thought leaders from the World Bank, UNESCO, Teach for All, and many more innovative educators, researchers, bloggers, and other learning specialists for a global conversation about what we have learned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, Educate! discussed the power of education to impact and be amplified by families.

Partnering with VVOB, Brookings, MSI, Pratham, and STiR to Develop an Education Scalability Checklist

From Brookings: “Last year, VVOB – education for development embarked on a consultative process to adapt the MSI Scalability Checklist to the education sector, along with Brookings, Educate!, MSI, Pratham, and STiR Education. The newly launched Education Scalability Checklist (ESC) is meant to help determine the ease of scaling a particular education initiative—not as a one-off evaluative exercise but as a dynamic diagnostic tool to help identify areas where an initiative might require further consideration and adaptations in order to increase the likelihood of scaling.”

How COVID-era Innovation can Build More Equitable Education Systems

This article authored by our own Hawah Nabbuye and Sarah Kayondo details our approach to program development during COVID-19 and lessons learned that we believe have wider implications for building more equitable education systems. The authors write: “Although we are still many months away from a return to normal, the approval of a COVID-19 vaccine has signaled an end to this crisis. While schools will reopen and social distancing guidelines will be lifted, the impacts of the pandemic will endure, and we should not let innovations forged in the era of COVID-19 fall by the wayside. The education sector has been pushed to innovate faster than ever before, and while many of our solutions were developed in response to the pandemic, the lessons learned are critical to building more equitable education systems.”

Educate!, Imago Dei Fund, & Other Partners Co-Author a Reflection on our Work & 2020: Disrupting White Supremacy in International Development

As nonprofit organizations, we faced many hard lessons this year: How to pivot to new ways of working, how to fill budgets in an unstable financial climate, and how to adapt to meet shifting needs with even fewer resources and more constraints in the wake of a global pandemic. These lessons have made us stronger and even better able to fulfill our missions. However, with deep and earnest reflection, we also know there are lessons and hard truths our sector and society still must face. As we watched and participated in the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the US this year, we had to make sense of our unique position straddling contexts and ask ourselves hard questions. What role do we – as an organization registered in the United States as 501c3 – play in perpetuating and upholding white supremacy in international development? Read more here.

Educate! Featured in the World Bank’s S4YE Brief Highlighting Key Trends in Adaptive Youth Employment Programs

This new publication by the World Bank Group’s Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) illustrates how youth employment projects are adapting both the design and implementation of youth employment programs to maintain their impact during this pandemic. The key strategies highlighted in the piece include: scaling up virtual operations, accelerating remote learning, crowdsourcing ideas from youth, encouraging youth voice, increasing support for micro, small, and medium enterprises, and leveraging new opportunities. A summary of the brief can be found on the World Bank Blog.

Educate! Participates in UNICEF-led Challenge to Empower Youth

Educate! is joining UNICEF and other education partners from around the world to launch the Reimagine Your Future Challenge for young people, especially young refugees and migrants. These organizations have created specialized pathways for learning and earning that youth can follow to discover new techniques, knowledge, and skills that will encourage them to explore their talents. Youth can navigate through the different courses and complete them all to collect a diverse set of tools to support their employment, education, and/or training. Learn more here.

Educate! Iterates to Increase Engagement in Our Distance Learning Model

The Stanford Social Innovation Review’s new publication, A Better Education for All During—and After—the COVID-19 Pandemic, explores how young learners might be best supported while schools are closed. The piece draws on evidence that Educate! has collected through the monitoring and evaluation of our distance learning model, stating, “To encourage greater participation, Educate! called the students' caregivers to tell them about the program. Their internal analysis indicates that households that received such encouragement calls had a 29 percent increase in youth participation compared to those that did not receive the communication.” Read more here.

Educate!’s Distance Learning Solutions Featured in S4YE Brief and Webinar: How technology can help incorporate youth voice in employment programs

The World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Unemployment (S4YE) has posted a new publication about centering youth voices in youth employment programs. Educate! has incorporated low-tech remote learning platforms into our distance learning models as a means of delivery and of collecting youth feedback to improve our lessons. This strategy is featured as a case study: “Today, youth are in direct contact with their Educate! Mentors via technology – SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook – and are continually sharing their progress, starting business projects, participating in remote lessons, and implementing the skills delivered by Educate!.” Read more here. We also discuss our mechanisms for collecting youth feedback in depth in this webinar.

Educate! Shares Design Approaches at USAID’s Global Education Learning Series

In an ongoing conversation on LinkedIn, USAID has gathered presenters, viewers, and moderators to discuss youth workforce development. Educate! discusses our strategies for preparing youth in and out of school for today’s economy via workforce readiness, entrepreneurship, skills training. We also illustrate how monitoring and evaluation has allowed us to successfully scale up and adjust our models in the face of COVID-19. Watch our presentation here.

Educate! Shares our Lessons Learned From Navigating the Digital Divide During COVID-19 on Brookings

Now on the Brookings Education Plus Development Blog: Educate!’s perspective on how COVID-19 is exacerbating inequality in education as well as emerging best practices to combat it. The pandemic and digital divide is excluding many youth from their right to learn, and now education implementers need to rethink education on a global level—pushing it further into the 21st century and toward a more equitable future.

Educate! Featured in Mastercard Foundation’s New Report on Secondary Education in Africa

Educate! was featured in Mastercard’s most recent report as one of two innovative organizations leveraging government partnerships to strengthen workforce readiness and entrepreneurial skills among youth. The report also highlighted Educate!’s emphasis on 21st century skills as well as our 2014 impact evaluation, stating our model demonstrated “significant improvements in business ownership, overall income, community project ownership, savings behavior, and self-efficacy in practical and 21st century skills.” 

Educate!’s New Strategy Discussed in Million Lives Club Webinar: How Can we Support Innovators Scaling During a Crisis?

Hellen Namisi, Educate!’s Design & Initiatives lead, presented our COVID-19 strategy at the Million Lives Club Webinar: “How can we support innovators scaling during a crisis?” We discuss our process of testing and continuously improving our programs, which are youth-driven, locally designed, and built with the flexibility to change alongside evolving pandemic-related restrictions. Listen to the webinar to hear from Educate! and other social enterprises scaling their COVID-19 solutions.

Educate!’s Reorganization and Rethinking: Why we need to play offense, and how

Adaptability. Agility. A commitment to continuous learning. What will it take for social enterprises to stay afloat and stay on track towards accomplishing their missions in the face of COVID-19? Educate! adopted a new framework at the start of the pandemic which has allowed us to capitalize on our strengths through reorganization, and has carried us forward as we rethink education for youth in East Africa in this new normal.

Educate!’s Commitment to Youth Highlighted in OpenIDEO’s COVID-19 Reimagine Learning Challenge

Educate! has been recognized by OpenIDEO for our contribution to the COVID-19 Reimagine Learning Challenge. Our feature in their open innovation platform covers our remote youth engagement strategies, our hopes for the future of education after COVID-19, and the way Educate!’s mission and history have shaped our response during this time.

Brookings Blog Highlights Educate!'s Approach to Learning Continuity Amidst Coronavirus Pandemic

Published on the Brookings “Future Development” blog, this piece summarizes key insights from a diverse set of organizations designing effective responses to the health, economic, and social impacts of COVID-19. The blog drew on promising initiatives compiled within a Community of Practice on Scaling Up Development Outcomes (CoP) newsletter, which further highlighted Educate!’s COVID-19 response as well as explored key challenges for international development during the pandemic. 

Educate! Response Strategies Featured on Global Innovation Exchange’s COVID-19 Innovation Hub

In the face of unprecedented challenges, Educate! remains committed to our values and mission by keeping youth engaged in education and skill-development while they can’t be physically present in schools. Our COVID-19 response strategies, which include radio lessons and automated calls to students, were featured on Global Innovation Exchange’s COVID-19 Innovation Hub (an initiative of USAID, Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Results for Development and the Korean International Cooperation Agency) as innovations that could contribute to the fight against COVID- 19.    

Educate!’s Impact Discussed in Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Webinar “From Research to Policy in Youth Employment: Rigorous Evidence from Randomized Evaluations”

What are the measurable, long-term impacts of Educate!’s work? In this webinar, Paul Gertler of UC Berkley discussed the evaluation he conducted alongside colleagues David Contreras-Loya and Laura Chioda of the World Bank. Researchers explored the question “How can we change the secondary school experience in order to improve the lives of youth as they go forward?” and examined Educate!’s approach, reporting that “Educate! has put together a really wonderful curriculum” which helps youth develop the soft skills for leadership, inspires them to make educational investments, and leads to more equitable social attitudes and practices.  

Educate! Featured on Brookings Education Plus Development Blog: “How skills shape the trajectory of life after school in Uganda”

Published by the Brookings Institution, this guest blog details the results of Educate!’s latest randomized control trial (RCT) in Uganda and outlines key conclusions drawn from the evaluation — shedding light on how soft skill development can play a critical role in driving positive, long-term life outcomes, especially for young women.

In Rwanda, Entrepreneurship is Taught in High School

Educate!’s work in Rwanda was recently featured in a an article published by Le Monde, a French journalistic newspaper. The piece takes readers inside the classroom to experience Rwanda’s entrepreneurship curriculum and Student Business Clubs, instituted by the country’s new competence-based curriculum reform in 2016. To support this reform, Educate! launched the Educate! Exchange, with the goal of accelerating the adoption of experiential teaching methods.

Educate!’s Systems-wide Approach to Tackling Youth Unemployment Highlighted by Imaginable Futures

Educate!’s approach to tackling youth unemployment and strengthening education systems in East Africa was recently featured in a blog by our partner, Imaginable Futures. The piece highlights our strategy for equipping youth with the core competencies for life in the 21st century as well as our model’s proven impact on life outcomes, and why Imaginable Futures decided to invest.

Educate! Selected as Recipient of 2020 Rybakov Prize

Educate! was selected as a recipient of this year's Rybakov Prize, the "Nobel Prize for philanthropists in education" according to Forbes. Established in 2019 by the Rybakov Foundation, the Prize is awarded annually to individuals and organizations committed to transforming the future of education and SDG 4. The award focuses specifically on those working to redesign preschool, primary, and secondary education.

Educate! Featured in Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) Webcast: The Skills We Really Need

How do we give youth the skills to succeed in life? New and exciting results from a four-year evaluation on the Educate! Experience program shed light on this question, offering new insights into what works. In this webinar, lead researchers Laura Chioda of the World Bank and Paul Gertler of UC Berkeley presented key findings, and Educate!’s Meghan Mahoney and Hawah Nabbuye shared Educate!’s motivation for the evaluation.

Educate! Considered for 2020 Skoll Award

Every year, the Skoll Foundation has the privilege of managing the sourcing and selection of the Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship. In an effort to make their award pipeline and process more transparent, this year Skoll released a shortlist of organizations and social entrepreneurs who were closely considered for the 2020 Skoll Award.

Can soft skills be taught?

Written by Laura Chioda of the World Bank with contributions from Educate!’s Meghan Mahoney and Paul Gertler, Kat Blesie, and Lauren Russell of UC Berkeley, this blog provides an overview of Educate!'s most recent external evaluation, which found lasting impact on soft skills, investments in education, and social spillovers for youth.

Educate! Research in Uganda Highlighted by Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA)

Educate!’s most recent randomized control trial was featured by Berkeley’s Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA), a hub for research on global development. CEGA, who provided funding to test Educate!’s impact on fertility and sexual-related behaviors, brings a scientific lens to development, integrating empirical economic analysis with expertise in agriculture, public health, education, engineering, and the environment.

Educate! Featured in World Bank’s Solutions for Youth Employment (S4YE) Impact Portfolio Factbook

S4YE is a multi-stakeholder coalition, led by the World Bank, that aims to provide leadership and resources for action to increase the number of young people engaged in productive work. The coalition’s new publication highlights the design elements of Educate!’s operations in Rwanda and 44 youth employment programs that make up S4YE’s external community of practice, the Impact Portfolio.

BBC features Educate! in series "People Fixing the World"

How exactly does the Educate! program prepare youth with the skills to succeed in today’s economy? This episode of the BBC podcast and video series "People Fixing the World" features an in-depth look at the challenge of youth unemployment and how Educate! is working to address it.

Educate! Model Highlighted in New HundrED Report of Financial Literacy Education Innovations

Educate!’s skills-based model of education was recently featured in a new report by HundrED, which presented a global review of financial literacy education initiatives. Out of 84 innovations, HundrED researchers selected 10 'Financial Literacy Education Innovations' that they consider to be improving financial literacy learning among young people, with particular emphasis on the operating models’ effectiveness and scalability or potential to scale.

RCT Results of Educate! Uganda Model Shared by Research Partner IPA

A follow-up to a randomized controlled trial (RCT), conducted with researchers from UC Berkeley, the World Bank, and Innovations for Poverty Action, found that the Educate! program has strong and meaningful impacts on graduates.

Executive Director Presents Educate!’s Gender Equity Strategy at Council on Foreign Relations

Educate’s Executive Director, Boris, Bulayev, was invited by the Women and Foreign Policy team at the Council on Foreign Relations to share Educate!’s innovative gender equity strategy and impact at a roundtable on women’s education and economic empowerment in East Africa.

Educate! Selected for Million Lives Club

Inspired by leading donors of the International Development Innovation Alliance, the Million Lives Club (MLC) celebrates innovators and social entrepreneurs who are reaching new horizons of impact, including those who have already scaled to serve at least 1,000,000 clients, or who are rapidly approaching this milestone.

Educate! Selected for a Transforming Lives Award

Out of over 600 applicants, Educate! was recognized by the Alquity Transforming Lives Foundation for our contributions to SDG 8 as well as our practices and results in economic empowerment, potential to scale, and sustainable approach to addressing social challenges.

Educate! Kenya Country Director Speaks at Education World Forum in London

The forum is the world’s largest gathering of education and skills actors, comprising three days of insight and inspiration from education pioneers, policy makers, and experts. Educate!’s Kenya Program Director, Diana Mwai, was invited to speak at this year’s event, where delegates representing over two-thirds of the world’s population gathered to debate future education policy. Diana shared Educate!’s innovative approach to bridging the skills gap and tackling youth unemployment in Kenya.

PSIPSE’s Youth Life Skills Report Features Educate!

A new study by the Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE) highlights lessons on developing successful programming to help translate the trending life skills momentum into action. Of the 18 PSIPSE life skills projects featured, Educate! is one of just three organizations providing both life skills lessons in schools and technical support to strengthen education systems.

African Unity Starts with African Youth

Written by Educate! board members Nicole Goldin and Dzingai Mutumbuka in celebration of Africa Day, this article explores the idea that youth are Africa's greatest unifying resource, with the potential to drive the progress that Africa Day exists to honor.

Educate! Selected by United Nations’ Generation Unlimited

Educate! was selected as 1 of 20 innovative youth solutions for the UN’s Generation Unlimited, a global partnership that aims to ensure that every young person is in education, learning, training or employment by 2030. Generation Unlimited identified a set of solutions that are bridging secondary-age education and training to employment and entrepreneurship, empowering young people to thrive in the changing world of work.

Educate!’s Program in Uganda Featured by Cartier Philanthropy

The piece published by Cartier Philanthropy highlighted Educate!’s innovative and engaging approach to transforming traditional education as well as the program’s emphasis on creating socially and environmentally responsible leaders and entrepreneurs.

Educate! Highlighted by The Aspen Institute in Landscape of Approaches and Solutions Dedicated to Advancing Economic Opportunities for Youth

Inspired by the challenge to address the global crisis of youth opportunity, The Aspen Institute undertook a landscape research effort to identify promising approaches to support youth in their search for meaningful work. Educate! is featured in the report as part of a small sample of existing models that were highlighted as especially innovative, evidence-based, or otherwise illustrative of a growing trend in the sector.

World Summit for Education (WISE) Special Focus Feature Highlights Impact-Driven Innovations in Education that are Leading the Way

How can we adapt education so that tomorrow’s workforce can confront new challenges? In WISE.ed’s latest Special Focus feature, Educate! and three other WISE Awards winners propose solutions to the education world’s biggest challenges.

Educate! Deputy Country Director Featured in Brookings Podcast

In a recent episode of The Brookings Cafeteria podcast series, Educate! Deputy Country Director, Hawah Nabbuye, and three other women who are leaders in girls’ education in their home countries, shared stories of their childhood educations, reflected on role models, and discussed their research and policy recommendations.

Education to Tap the Potential of African Youth

In a new blog post featured on BOLD,  Educate! Executive Director and Co-founder, Boris Bulayev, shares Educate!’s mission and how skills-based education can disrupt cycle of youth unemployment. Boris is featured on BOLD as a recipient of the 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Awards, which are awarded by The Jacobs Foundation to 10 social innovators and change makers in the field of child and youth development.

Diplomatic Courier Features Educate! Piece for International Day of the Girl

Written by Educate!’s Executive Director and Co-founder Boris Bulayev and Board Director Nicole Goldin, the article shares how a strategic gender focus and intentional program design can promote gender equality and empower girls to succeed.

Educate! Leader Hawah Nabbuye Publishes Report in Brookings: “Gender-sensitive pedagogy: The bridge to girls’ quality education in Uganda”

As a part of her research as an Echidna Global Scholar within the Brookings Center for Universal Education, this policy brief “examines the education policies in Uganda with special attention to those that support the use of gender sensitivity in the curriculum and classroom.” It also explores a teacher and student survey and ultimately provides recommendations to policymakers on the implementation of gender-sensitive pedagogy in an effort to improve education for girls.

World Summit for Education (WISE) Webinar Features Educate! National Design and Training Manager, Rogers Kamugisha

With rapid advances in technology, researchers, teachers, and education leaders hope to finally be able to put in place education policies, methods, and solutions that tackle the mismatch between how we teach and how our brain functions. How do we rethink what is taught, how it is taught, and how we assess learning? The webinar facilitated by WISE explored these questions and more.

Dubai Cares' programs in Rwanda to improve youth's education

Khaleej Times of Dubai highlights Educate! as one of Dubai Cares’ programs in Rwanda helping to improve education and empower youth.

Hawah Nabbuye, Deputy Country Director, Highlighted in Brookings for Innovative Gender-based Research

What’s threatening further progress in girls education in Uganda? Hawah Nabbuye, Educate!'s Deputy Country Director and Brookings’ Echidna Global Scholar, shares how stereotypes about girls and assumptions about gender-sensitive teaching methods are blocking further progress on promoting girls’ education in Ugandan schools.    

Educate! Staff, Hawah Nabbuye, Selected for the Prestigious Echidna Global Scholars Program

Hosted by the Center for Universal Education (CUE) at the Brookings Institution, the Echidna Global Scholars Program is a visiting fellowship where Scholars spend four to six months pursuing research on global education issues, with a specific focus on improving learning opportunities and outcomes for girls in the developing world. Hawah brings her nearly 10 years experience with Educate! to explore methods teachers are using to empower girls to improve attendance, participation in co-curricular activities, leadership positions, and academic performance.

United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network - Youth Initiative features Educate! in 2018 Youth Solutions Report

SDSN Youth, the official youth initiative of the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network, featured Educate! in their newly released Youth Solutions Report. The initiative's flagship report highlighted Educate! as one of 50 youth-led organizations contributing towards the achievement of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Mathematica Study Highlights Educate!’s Innovative Approaches to Enhancing Teacher Quality at Scale

A new study from Mathematica Policy Research examined Educate!’s innovative approaches for enhancing teacher quality at scale. The study, which looked at organizations supported by the multi-donor Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE), distilled learnings from the experiences of eight organizations implementing in-service teacher training programs. The findings offer practical lessons about how to design, implement, and scale efforts to train, motivate, and support teachers.

Boris Bulayev, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Educate!, Selected For 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Award

The Jacobs Foundation bestows 10 awards to social innovators and change makers in the field of child and youth development. The Co-Founder and Executive Director of Educate!, Boris Bulayev, was awarded for his efforts to equip youth with key 21st century and employability skills.

The Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE) Features Educate! in a Brief about Improving Teacher Quality at Scale

The Partnership to Strengthen Innovation and Practice in Secondary Education (PSIPSE) released a brief offering 10 tips for improving teacher quality at scale. PSIPSE drew on important insights from Educate! as well as seven other non-governmental organizations working to sharpen teachers’ pedagogical skills.

Building Bridges to the Future: Global Case Studies of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century

Educate! was highlighted in Connie K. Chung’s latest book, Building Bridges to the Future: Global Case Studies of Teaching and Learning in the 21st Century. Dr. Chung is the former Associate Director of the Harvard Graduate School of Education's Global Education Innovation Initiative and is a veteran educator with 20 years of experience in practice, research, and policy. The book is a collection of profiles of 10 education organizations who are equipping young people to thrive in the 21st century.

Educate! highlighted by The Global Opportunity Explorer

The Global Opportunity Explorer identified five innovative solutions that are advancing gender equality and accelerating progress. Educate!’s program was highlighted for its positive impact on the lives and futures of young women.

The Half-Truths That Have Sidetracked Girls’ Education

Why are we still falling short on girls’ education globally? Stanford Social Innovation Review  highlights a few of the half-truths holding the field back and a few whole truths awaiting discovery. Educate! is featured as an example of a high-impact, evidence-based program in Uganda which, while it aims to improve the education experiences of all youth, has seen a greater impact on girls. 

Evaluation Director of Educate!, Meghan Mahoney, Shares Expertise on a Panel Hosted by the Society for International Development

Detailed in the Education for Development Workgroup’s 2018 Annual Report, the panel discussed the landscape of secondary education in developing countries and examined specific strategies that have been successfully applied to integrate positive youth development into educational settings.

World Bank blog features Educate!

The World Bank’s Jobs and Development Blog highlights Educate!'s work in Rwanda as an example of one of the 19 high-potential, innovative projects profiled by Solutions for Youth Employment.

Educate! featured in Apolitical

Apolitical highlights thought leaders who work with governments to solve the most difficult challenges facing communities. A recent case study profiles Educate!’s innovative partnerships with African governments to transform education systems at the national level, as well as the measurable impact we've achieved in Uganda.

Educate! Published in Childhood Education: Innovations

Our article "Breaking New Ground: Four Key Lessons from Launching Education Innovations in Post-Conflict Environments" was published in the journal Childhood Education: Innovations. We describe the challenges we faced and lessons we learned in scaling our model to the complex, post-conflict region of Northern Uganda.

Do social enterprise accelerators really work? And if so, how?

Educate! was featured as a successful social enterprise in Duncan McCullough and John Campbell Jr.'s Results for Development article.

Educate! Program Fights Youth Unemployment in Uganda

The Borgen Project profiles Educate!'s program that fights to lower Uganda's 66% youth unemployment rate.

Al Jazeera's Educate! Documentary

For the first time ever Educate! was featured in a broadcast television segment! The Al Jazeera English documentary series, Rebel Education, selected us as one of six institutions across the globe that is breaking the mold and creating a radically new vision for 21st century education. Watch the documentary here. Read the filmmaker's notes on his time spent with Educate!.

Social Innovation In Africa by Ndidi Okonkwo Nwunel

Educate!'s model for scale and monitoring and evaluation efforts are featured in Nwunel's book, Social Innovation in Africa, which is focused on filling the knowledge gap for those tackling Africa’s serious social problems.

35 Dream Jobs by the GroundTruth Project

35 Dream Jobs highlights the resilience and personal triumphs of young people from around the world as they traverse the difficult journey from education to employment and, hopefully, a dream job. Tinka, a former Educate! Mentor and now team member, and Pauline, an Educate! graduate, shared their stories.

Harvard Global Education Innovation Initiative: 21st Century Education in Action

Harvard Graduate School of Education's Global Education Innovation Initiative profiles Educate!'s practical, skills-based model as an example of "21st Century Education in Action".

Africa Must Do More To Harness Young People's Entrepreneurial Drive

Dr. Francois Bonnici, director of the Bertha Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, highlights Educate! as a model for how to "foster or nurture young people’s entrepreneurial spirit – and address development challenges in the process."

Bill Gates cites Educate! in 2016 Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in South Africa

Bill Gates discusses about his optimism for Africa's future and references Educate! as an innovative NGO helping high schools prepare young people for the workplace by teaching students how to start their own business. Read the transcript or watch the speech (1:03:00).

Educate! Chosen as 1 of 100 Top Sustainable Solutions

The 2015 Sustainia100 study features 100 new stories from the forefront of sustainability innovation. Deployed in 151 countries, the solutions feature new ways of saving water, managing waste, building homes and safeguarding our food production. The top-100 sustainability solutions were found after reviewing +1500 projects and businesses on six continents. Click here to read the excerpt about Educate!.

Schools Urged to Embrace Skills Labs and Business Clubs

Since a skills lab and business clubs were introduced at Ecole Secondaire Nyamirama in Kayonza District along with the competence -based curriculum this year, students no longer regard what they learn as mere far-fetched theory but rather practical work which is relevant to their needs.

Innovator Interview with Educate!

The Center for Education Innovations recently interviewed Educate!'s Director of External Relations Loren Crary to discuss Educate!'s exciting momentum and advice for other innovating organizations.

Selling Entrepreneurship to a Million Students

Educate! is on a mission to turn students into entrepreneurs. Read about our impact, plans to scale, and lessons learned.

Asking the Small Questions to Support Big Scale

Educate! shares three important lessons we learned from others (and from mistakes we made along the way) about preparing for scale.

Uganda is a Land of Entrepreneurs, but How Many Startups Survive?

Paul Mugambwa, an Educate! Graduate, credits the financial discipline he learned through Educate! with allowing him to overcome a lack of access to capital. Paul started a landscape and maintenance company called Motion Gardeners, and now employs seven people.

Education Projects in Egypt and Uganda Win 2015 Wise Awards

Educate! has been named a WISE Awards winner at this year’s World Innovation Summit for Education in Doha. 

5 Tips for Social Enterprises Looking to Scale

Social entrepreneurs dream of changing the world — but to achieve more than pockets of success, they need to operate at scale.

What It Takes to Launch a Program in a Post-War Region

Guest blog post by Richard Luuba, Program Manager at Educate! about expanding Educate!'s program to post-conflict Northern Uganda.

The Educate! Experience Named a 2015 WISE Awards Finalist project

The Educate! Experience is one of fifteen projects chosen by WISE for providing compelling and innovative solutions to today’s most pressing challenges in education.

Educate! Selected to Join Epic Foundation’s 2015 Global Portfolio

Out of more than 1,400 applicants from around the world, Educate! has been selected by the Epic Foundation as one of the 20 most impactful youth organizations globally.

Educate! Featured on Brookings Blog

Brookings’ Millions Learning Project has featured on their blog a preliminary case study featuring Educate!. The Brookings Institution is the foremost thought leader in international education. 

Educate! Highlighted as Case Study in R4D Report and Article "Bridging the job skills gap around the developing world," The Washington Post. 

Developing employment skills such as communication, relationship-building, and problem-solving is essential in helping millions of unemployed youth globally, according to a Washington, D.C.-based international development organization that works to help overcome challenges facing people in low- and middle-income countries.

James K. Arinaitwe, Educate! Team Member, writes New York Times Op-Ed, "Uganda's Ticking Bomb," May 2014. 

In March, the United States sent 150 Air Force Special Operations forces along with military aircraft to Uganda to help capture Joseph Kony, whose Lord’s Resistance Army has terrorized the country for decades. 

Educate! Highlighted in "How to Assess a Social Enterprise," The Huffington Post by Hila Mehr. 

A friend transitioning from the corporate world to the social enterprise space recently asked me how to assess a social enterprise. How do we really know when an organization is doing quality work we should rally behind and having a real, positive impact, versus just...

Otim Gerald, Educate! Staff Member, Selected For Third Cohort of Acumen East Africa Fellows, February 2014, Acumen Blog.

Acumen is proud to announce the selection of our third cohort of East Africa Fellows. After a competitive selection process, we’ve chosen are a diverse group of 22 inspiring individuals who are fighting poverty and changing lives of people all over East Africa.

Educate! Co-Founders Named to Forbes 30 Under 30 List, January 2014, Forbes.

Through Educate!, cofounders Boris Bulayev, Eric Glustrom, and Angelica Towne are transforming Uganda's education system by partnering with locals schools to provide a two-year social entrepreneurship program for 16- to 18-year-olds. The goal: ditching rote memorization in favor of leadership development. In 2013, the organization reached 8,000 students and brought its entrepreneurship course to 25,000 students by integrating into Uganda's national curriculum.