Youth Made Initiative sets its sights on narrowing the design and tech skills gap
July 24, 2019
Ryan Ball emphasizes the need for collaboration between educators and industry to promote learning in the design and tech field
Youth Made Initiative was founded by educator Ryan Ball as a collaboration between educators and industry to bring together the design and technology departments in schools with local design and manufacturing industry. According to a recent interview, the program was founded to address a widening gap between unemployed individuals and companies in need of work as while many young adults can't find jobs, many employers say they can't find enough qualified applicants for filling jobs in the design and tech areas.
While working in Malaysia, Ball discovered a lack of understanding about design and tech among students and their parents. Many of his students wanted to study both subjects, but the opportunities in the school curriculum didn’t exist even though the design and manufacturing industries were in abundance. Ball began creating learning-by-doing opportunities for his students with local companies. Word of mouth spread and other schools and design and tech companies in other countries wanted to emulate the success. The program grew and became known as Youth Made Initiative.
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