South Africa has the world’s highest recorded youth unemployment rate. Many young people are unable to access job opportunities due to a lack of financial resources and necessary work experience. Allan van der Muelen, the co-founder of start-up Zlto, is changing this.
Zlto is a web-based digital rewards platform that incentivizes young people to gain work experience by volunteering in the community. Users build a digital resume by uploading completed work assignments, showing both their impact on the project and the skills they gained while completing the task. For each project they also earn Zlto, a digital currency that can be spent on a range of items, like food, clothing, mobile data and transportation, thanks to collaborations with national retail partners.
Zlto is having a notable impact in the Cape Town Flats, securing permanent work for more than 2,300 young people in the last 12 months; there are 36,000 volunteers working with more than 1.2 million people in the community. The team is now piloting the launch of Zlto in Tanzania as well as the United Kingdom, working with the Newbigin House charity in support of asylum seekers and other individuals.
There is a network of over 1,000 stores where users can redeem their zito. The app uses blockchain technology to track users’ personal positive behaviour.
See https://www.blog.google/technology/developers/using-web-help-young-people-find-work/ and their website at https://zlto.co
#technology #southafrica #volunteering
#^Using the web to help young people find work
Meet Allan van der Meulen, co-founder of Zlto, a web app tackling youth unemployment in Cape Town and creating real change in the community