The Youth Co:Lab 2021 program is being implemented in Indonesia, based on the spirit of young entrepreneurs spread across various islands. It is a capacity building and youth business development program that consists of workshops and mentoring sessions. The program is a collaboration between UNDP Indonesia, Citi Foundation, and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of the Republic of Indonesia. It also collaborates with UN COVID-19 Response and Indosat SheHacks 2021, and is supported and organized by the Social Enterprise Platform (PLUS) and Community Entrepreneurship Academy (AKM).
Youth Co:Lab 2021 is a continuation of the Ideathonesia program, but has its own unique aspects. While Ideathonesia focuses on building and realizing ideas, Youth Co:Lab provides further support to social entrepreneurs who are already running their businesses. The program is designed to equip budding entrepreneurs with skills for starting and managing their businesses, with a curriculum that focuses on business development. The program is conducted online, making it accessible to more young people from various provinces in Indonesia.
116 teams consisting of young people aged 18-30 years from all over Indonesia were selected to participate in the program. These teams had social enterprises at the early stage level. The winner of Youth Co:Lab 2021 will get the opportunity to represent Indonesia in the Youth Co:Lab Asia Pacific event.
PLUS and AKM designed this online youth capacity building program through thematic workshops and intensive mentoring. Youth Co:Lab workshop materials cover the following topics: Impact Measurement, Market Research, Product Development, Strategic Finance, Legal Framework for Social Enterprises and Marketing for Impact Enterprises. PLUS collaborates with social enterprise practitioners, experts and representatives of other organizations who have background and experience to become resource persons at workshop sessions. It is hoped that deepening this substance can support participants’ efforts to grow more solidly and sustainably. Furthermore, the selected teams were also given time to apply their knowledge and consult through mentoring sessions. The participants felt enthusiastic because the material presented was practical and relevant to the participants’ current needs. This is based on participant feedback where 90.7% of participants stated that the training had high relevance to their current business conditions.
PLUS goes beyond the standard learning experience by offering a supplement session called “Brown Bag Session” to support participants’ learning process. These sessions are informal and provide an opportunity for participants to learn from business experts and practitioners who share their knowledge and experience on various topics, including Sales Strategy, Technology-based Product Development, Iteration Process, and more. These sessions enable participants to delve deeper into these topics and engage in discussions with experienced practitioners.
The implementation of Youth Co:Lab closed with a judging process at the Youth Co:Lab Demo Day which was also attended by Mrs. Angela Tanoesodibjo as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Economy of the Republic of Indonesia. Demo Day Youth Co:Lab 2021 presents judges from various backgrounds, ranging from government representatives, academics, NGOs, entrepreneurs and others. It is hoped that the judges, who come from various industries, can provide input and suggestions from various points of view for the progress of the participants’ social enterprises.
Learning from holding this activity, PLUS believes that the resilience of Indonesia’s budding entrepreneurs can be built on good collaboration with various members of the social enterprise ecosystem, both from the Government, Companies (Business Entities), Social Enterprise Enablers, and NGOs.
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