The programme addresses the challenge of youth employability, with a target on youth coming from underprivileged backgrounds. It focuses on youth employability, with a target on youth coming from underprivileged backgrounds, ensuring that no one is left behind by the achievement of decent jobs for all. The young people living under the care of SOS Children’s Villages programs, are connected to employees from Deutsche Post DHL Group through different activities to advance the young people’s careers for sustainable, independent adult lives. Through this partnership DHL and SOS work to achieve equality and prevent marginalization and to motivate and educate young people to take the right steps in establishing a sustainable and financially independent adult life. Since the initiation of the programme in 2011, GoTeach expanded to 35 countries, in South America, Africa, MENA, Europe and Asia. In terms of beneficiaries reached, throughout the years our programme engaged more than 13,100 youth and 6,400 DHL employees as volunteers.

In order for the programme to be implemented, we are using the current structure:• Global Partnership coordinator within SOS Children’s Villages• Global Partnership coordinator within DPDHL Group• Regional structure within DPDHL, with coordinators that manage the programme on regional / continental level• National structure of the partnership, with person in charge both on SOS CV and DPDHL side for the programme, that meet regularly, plan, implement and evaluate the programme together throughout the year. • External consultant, supporting with the evaluation, planning and monitoring processThe phases of the programme development are the following:• Pilot phase – The first year of the partnership was a pilot year, in which 4 countries were included (Madagascar, Brazil, Vietnam, South Africa)• 2nd phase – focused on expansion of the programme in different countries, this phase lasted throughout the first contractual agreement, from 2012-2014. During this phase we managed to onboard 22 new countries, while keeping in the programme the previous 4. Also, with the growing experience in the programme, during this phase we also ran the first qualitative evaluation of it, that showed us that the GoTeach programme works.• 3rd phase – currently during this phase, planned for 2015 – 2017, the programme is focused on growing its reach and the impact in the countries where it already exists, and in the same time, to create a scalable and adaptable model, that could be replicated easily.When it comes to the implementation process on local level, the process followed by new countries was the following:- Preparation: check if both SOS CV and DPDHL are active in the country; set focuses on youth and employability for corporate responsibility activities in DPDHL, having an individual responsible for the partnership.- Contact and Support: contacting between SOS CV and DPDHL and as well the Global Team and the regional coordinator; participate in a conference call with the Global Team and the regional coordinator.- Kick-Off: hold a 2-3 day workshop with representatives of the Global Team and regional coordinator; introduce the partnership and its framework.- Planning and Agreement (repeated each year): establish key contact person on each side; set up organizational structures; create annual plans; send invoice for initial fund; prepare indemnity forms.- Implementation (repeated each year): send regular activity updates to the Global Team and Regional coordinator; send communication materials in any form; create new partnership activities.- Prolongation of contract: submit reports and activities implemented; evaluate through quantitative measures (KPIs).

Every year new countries would join the partnership; an investment into capacity building was needed to secure a good implementation. Therefore, for new countries joining the GoTeach programme, the first step was ensuring proper knowledge on the partnership and programme, through a conference call done with the Global Team and the Regional Coordinator. Moreover, each country had a kick-off event in the form of a workshop, where the partnership was introduced and the first ideas of activities were brainstormed, all with the moderation of the Global Team and the Regional Coordinators.Another important phase in which capacity building was necessary was during 2013 and 2015, when the programme evaluations took place. For the first evaluation, realized during 2013, the storytelling method was used. For this, national evaluation coordinators were appointed in each country and trained in the Storytelling Method in a joint workshop. Afterwards, the national evaluation coordinators organized national workshops with the aim of collecting stories from the workshop participants: SOS young people and DHL volunteers.For the second evaluation, realized during 2015, the method chosen was a semi-structured survey, which verified the extent to which the GoTeach Theory of Change is plausible and realistic. During this evaluation, the answers were collected remotely, using an online survey tool, however resources were still involved for capacity building in terms of understanding the evaluation process and later on, once the evaluation report was finished, for taking the results further and improving the programme on local level.The nature of the programme however requires constant capacity building. For this, the regional coordinators and the global team are always available to support. Moreover, one important part of capacity building from the global team consists of the development of booklets with detailed descriptions for different parts of the project cycle: from planning, to implementation and then to evaluation and reporting. Last but not least, we are in preparation of revolutionizing our project cycle management, moving to a web-based application for planning, evaluation and reporting of the programme. For this, further capacity building will be set in place: an initial conference call with the regional coordinators for clarifications followed by webinars for the national coordinators of the programme and developed booklets. Moreover, additional capacity building is planned in order to better prepare SOS Children’s Villages mothers and the youth care co-workers to be able to give additional support to youth for employability.

In order for the programme to be implemented, we are using the current structure:• SOS Children’s Villages – with a structure set in place that incorporates a Global Partnership responsible, regional coordinators and national responsibles of the programme; Responsibilities: identify and involve youth from the SOS Children’s Villages, assess the needs of youth, coordinate and monitor the programme, assure compliance of the programme with internal regulations, report and evaluate, manage internal and external communication of the programme.• DPDHL Group – with a structure set in place that incorporates a Global Partnership responsible, regional coordinators and national responsibles of the programme. Responsibilities: identify and involve volunteers from DHL, get the buy in from top management on global and local level, coordinate and monitor the programme, assure compliance of the programme with internal regulations, report and evaluate, manage internal and external communication of the programme.• External consultant – one person working directly with the global team of the programme, on a contractual basis.Responsibilities: support with the evaluation, planning and monitoring process, facilitates workshops and meetings for the development of the programme.Concerning the mechanism for evaluating impact, both coordinators from DPDHL Group and SOS Children’s Villages are responsible for and involved in the evaluation, which was led in the past by the external consultant. During our previous two evaluations of the programme, the following people were involved:- Youth , through interviews and surveys- Volunteers, through interviews and surveys- National and Regional coordinators, being the ones coordinating directly the evaluation and collecting the information- Global team, through working on the evaluation framework jointly.So far, since the beginning of the partnership (2011), we have effectuated two major evaluations: the first one was finished in 2013, using the storytelling method, which revealed qualitative and rich data, showing positive signs of impact on the lives of the youth and volunteers involved; the second evaluation was finished in 2015, building upon the findings of the first evaluation, but rather focusing on how the programme works for both youth and volunteers in the various contexts where the programme is implemented.

Deutsche Post DHL Group and SOS Children’s Villages International