By 2020, there will be over 180 million young people below the age of 30 out of work. Currently, 50% of children are dropping out of school which means the next generation work force will be largely without skills.
From our experience of making mass media over the past nine years, we know that an inspiring education can change the way children see their lives and opportunities, compelling them to stay in school.
In 2012 we’re asking a bolder
question:
Can beautiful stories create value for
entrepreneurship and build
employability skills? Can young
people use what they learn to
create economic opportunities for
themselves and their communities?
Can they be the heroes we need?
Be! an Entrepreneur asks this question through mass media that reaches over 100 million young people in slums and villages across India on television and radio networks–and 300,000 children in schools in our first year.
Taking a dual approach to keeping children in school and creating new young entrepreneur role models, Be! Books teach entrepreneurial skills and Be! Mass Media invites young people to submit their business ideas to the Be! Fund–India’s first risk capital fund for young people who live in poverty. We invest in young people
age 18-29 to start businesses they define and that solve problems. Then we tell their real-life stories through mass appeal movies and graphic novels to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs.
