Take the leap and start your own business.
The Undergraduate Social Innovation Fellowship
Programme (USIFP) is an initiative that promotes the culture of social
entrepreneurship —a transformative process of using new ideas to create businesses
that solves societal problems. It encourages the use of innovation to drive job
creation and employment among youths in the
nation’s higher institutions.
The social sector
is a huge, untapped market for youth career and employment. Through the fellowship programme, students starts early to
develop key competences and skills that allow them to leverage on the social
value of their disciplines to create businesses that will help them to
earn and avoid unemployment when they graduate.
The fellowship programme therefore challenge students to constantly come up with innovative breakthrough solutions to societal problems by adopting community-centered approach to their disciplines while utilizing theoretical frameworks that are practically useful for applied efforts to enhance the well-being of communities. Through this way, academic disciplines can practically benefit communities and even drive development by helping to solve some of the society’s most pressing social challenges.
Programme Philosophy
The fellowship programme was put in place against the backdrop of the
rising youth/graduate unemployment in the country and the need to inspire
youths to tap into the vast career, job creation and self-employment opportunities
in the social sector. The fellowship programme stimulates the use of social
innovation by youths to create their own business solutions. The programme
therefore seeks to eradicate youth unemployment by encouraging youth/undergraduate
innovation and solutions to societal problems. The focus of the fellowship programme
is to empower youths as social entrepreneurs and civic innovators to create and
run businesses that address societal problems, while preparing others for
exciting career in the local and global development field.
Therefore, youths need skills for civic innovation and social
entrepreneurship. The fellowship programme equips them with the tools to become
professionals, leaders and change agents who create new economic opportunities by
tapping into the social sector even as students.
Requirement:
Fellows include
post graduate and undergraduate students of various institutions of higher
learning. In addition to having a high level of proficiency in spoken and
written English, fellows should possess entrepreneurial spirit with a passion
for improving lives and creating positive changes. As potential
innovators, fellows are encouraged to always see opportunities and resources
where other people don’t, and be willing to harness those resources to create innovative
solutions. They must also possess a strength-based mind-set, personal
resilience and an appreciative approach that can enable them to discover hidden
solutions.
Join the growing number of young civic
innovators making a huge difference to people’s lives, the local community and
the environment.
Visit www.cdinigeria.org to
fill and submit our contact form.
