How the DIA Program\’s JET Project Jamaica incorporated Citibeats\’ Ethical AI platform to Help Jamaican Youth Succeed in the Digital Economy  

The rapid expansion of the digital technology landscape poses challenges for young people disproportionately affected by the mismatch between their digital skills and those in demand by the labor market. In 2022, the unemployment rate for youth was 6 times above pre-pandemic levels*. This calls for prioritizing employability and upskilling strategies to build a resilient labor market.  

To tackle this issue, the DIA Program launched the \”Jamaican Youth through Empowerment & Training\” (JET) project, which aims to re-skill and up-skill youth with the most demanded digital and soft skills and later connect them with jobs or freelancing opportunities or support them in developing entrepreneurial ventures.  

The DIA Program has been working with Jamaican youth since 2016 through its DIA Urban Lab and the NCB Icon Lab, which gives them a wealth of experience in these areas of operation. To make the JET Project Jamaica even more cutting-edge, DIA partnered with Citibeats, whose ethical AI platform designed the Employment and Skills Monitor. It enabled it to identify Jamaica\’s labor market trends and quickly develop innovative training curricula that respond to real-time labor market needs.  

The Employment and Skills Monitor reflects that Jamaicans\’ three most demanded digital skills are programming, web, app development, Artificial Intelligence, and Social Media Management. These findings, as well as other relevant insights such as the most demanded skills by sector, the general sentiments towards specific digital skills, and a global perspective towards these areas, boost our efforts at the DIA Program to tailor our JET project to what the people, behind all these data numbers really want, desire and aspire.  

 The partnership with Citibeats represents a powerful opportunity to leverage artificial intelligence and data to improve the lives of young people in Jamaica. The Employment and Skills Monitor provides an ethical and effective way to collect and analyze data, allowing organizations like The Trust for the Americas through the DIA program to make data-driven decisions that can help improve the lives of young people in Jamaica and beyond.  

That is how the DIA Program\’s JET Project Jamaica incorporated Citibeats\’ Ethical AI platform to help Jamaican youth succeed in the digital economy by using data to drive social impact. To learn more, check out our latest report.  

* Source: ILO (2022)