ILA brings together young people and prominent community icons to foster an understanding and spark an interest in entrepreneurship on key societal issues on Health, Business, Environment and Culture. We view today’s problems as opportunities for entrepreneurs to focus on the meaningful businesses and social innovations that will radically change the world for the better. We found that we had a sh
ortage of entrepreneurial and innovation talent throughout the youth in the country, students were not being exposed to leadership, innovation and entrepreneurial concepts until college whilst other young people would not continue to college/university. We want to plant the seed of excellent community leadership and innovation before youth decide what they are going to study in college or University, thus allowing them to make an educated decision about their future. We also found that once we educated our talent at the college level they were leaving the country and moving because they felt there were no jobs for them in Zimbabwe. Through the Leadership and Innovation Academy we link youth with decent work opportunities whilst teach them that they can create decent and sustainable employment for themselves and their peers “make a job, not take a job” and stay in the country and help their local communities and economies grow. The Innovation and leadership is a unique program participants are exposed to the real world of entrepreneurship, mentorship and gain hands-on experience in forming a start-up and pursuing investors.
