Conceptual model of social-private partnership for E-Skill delivery

As economies move towards the knowledge economy reinforced by high-speed computer networks and connectivity, skills required to be relevant is also shifting and at a pace difficult for existing skill transfer schemes to keep up, resulting in mismatch in industry requirement and actual transferred skills with attendant avalanche of youth unemployment. As it is, unemployment triggers and drives a number of issues especially in rural underserved communities. Using internet research tools and employing our long professional experiences working in the sector, this action research studies the various vectors contributing to the problem of unemployment, skill mismatch, ICT demand and supply vis-a-viz emerging knowledge economy and crafted the Cyber Rebel Fellowship Program that innovatively encapsulates identified success factors of existing schemes and accommodates new thinking and strategies perpendicular to unresolved vectors. We sought a paradigm shift in tackling the ICT supply and demand conundrum using the Social-Private Partnership — a variation of the Public-Private Partnership, as a chamber to convert each problem (ICT supply and demand) to the solution of the other through mobilizing inputs and resources from a wide range of stakeholders and applying same, to provide inclusive skill supply catalysis and demand uptakes especially in rural underserved communities.