In our April instalment of our series exploring technology-based social enterprises, we are highlighting Link Your Purpose, a career development platform and social enterprise, based in Jamaica. In speaking with the CEO of Link Your Purpose, Lanisia Rhoden, we discuss: how the business is leveraging technology; how it balances sustainability versus profitability; and its scope for growth in the Caribbean and internationally.

 

This episode is also available in Apple iTunes, Google Play Music, Spotify (NEW!!) and on Stitcher!

Without a doubt, today’s job market is tough. There are more opportunities, or rather a broader range of jobs and roles than ever before, but at the same time, competition can be stiff across many fields. Moreover, this competition is not necessarily limited to the job market, but trickles down to securing a spot in certain universities and courses, in order to be in a position to satisfy he academic qualifications for some jobs.

It therefore means that even at secondary school, students and their support systems, ought to be thinking critically about the future. For example, they ought to be exploring: job trends; the fields or types of expertise that are in demand; and consequently, the subjects students should be studying currently, in order to matriculate into tertiary-level programmes. Alternatively, students may need to investigate and consider the range of jobs that could be available to them, based the subjects they are currently studying, or plan to study. Regardless of the approach, the objective to ensure that students (and their parents), can make informed decisions and can chart the appropriate path to realise the future envisaged.

To their credit, many secondary and tertiary institutions have some career guidance resource available. Typically, it might be one or two individuals on staff, and/or few books and magazines in a designated section the library. However, the resources available might be limited, as the material might be dated, and it may be unclear how versed the career guidance counsellors are on emerging and non-traditional jobs/roles, or on the various routes that individuals can choose  and still end up marketable in a particular field.

In continuing our exploration of technology-based social enterprises – that is, tech businesses that have social impact among their core objectives – we will be discussing Link Your Purpose in this podcast episode. Link Your Purpose is an online career development platform and social enterprise that is improving the way career education is offered not only in schools, but also to individuals who might be looking to change careers. Ultimately, the platform helps people understand how to get from where they are, career-wise, to where they would like to be.

 

Introducing our guest

Lanisia Rhoden is a Social Entrepreneur, Founder and Executive Director of the award-winning NGO, Young Women and Men of Purpose (YWOP/YMOP), an organization which provides career guidance, mentorship and entrepreneurship training and support to young people in Jamaica. She is also the Chief Executive Officer of Link Your Purpose, an online career development platform and social enterprise created to help young people identify and fulfil their career goals through technology, and expand the services of YWOP/YMOP.

As a social entrepreneur, Lanisia is passionate about youth and community development and entrepreneurship and has received several awards for her work, including the Commonwealth Youth Award for Excellence in Development Work, and the Jamaica Governor General’s Award for Youth Leadership and Community Development.

Lanisia has an MSc in Innovation Management and Entrepreneurship from the University of Manchester, UK as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar, a BSc in Food Service Management from the University of Technology, Jamaica, is a Social Enterprise Fellow of The DO School, Germany, a Young Founder of the Westerwelle Foundation, Berlin and most recently, a grantee and Global Innovator of the Expo 2020 Dubai, Expo Live Innovation Grant Programme, for her Social Enterprise, Link Your Purpose. She is also keen to help non-governmental organisations (NGOs) become sustainability by creating Social Enterprises, which she does through her online consulting agency, The NGO Journey.

 

Insights into our conversation

As much as we might all readily acknowledge that a career guidance/development platform is invaluable in navigating today’s job market, a venture that targets high school and university students primarily might be challenged if profitability is its primary focus. Luckily, and through Lanisia’s leadership, Link Your Purpose has been playing a long game. It has been structured as non-profit, has been growing from strength to strength, and currently seems poised for growth, not only in Jamacia, but across the Caribbean region.

Although Lanisia is quick to laugh, the journey of Link Your Purpose speaks to her tenacity, and her commitment to youth development and helping young people identify and fulfil their purpose. However, in being a technology-driven social enterprise, and in our discussion with Lanisia, we were eager to lift the hood on Link Your Purpose, and so posed several questions, including the following:

  1. Can you give us more details about the services Link Your Purpose offers and how individuals access those services?
  2. Tell us a bit of your story, and what drove you to set up Link Your Purpose?
  3. How do you balance the social impact versus the sustainability/profitability imperatives you might have for Link Your Purpose?
  4. What are some of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) or markers of success that are important to Link Your Purpose?
  5. What has been some of the successes Link Your Purpose has been able to realise to date?
  6. What has been the biggest lesson you have had to learn in running your own business?
  7. What is the best piece of advice you would give a tech start-up that is wants to start a social enterprise?
  8. Where would you like to see Link Your Purpose in the next 3 to 5 years?

 

We would love to hear from you!

Do leave us a comment either here beneath this article, or on our Facebook or LinkedIn pages, or via Twitter, @ICTPulse.

 

Select links

Below are links to some of the organisations and resources that either were mentioned during the episode, or otherwise, might be useful:

 

 

Image credits: L Rhoden; McElspeth (Pixabay);  Alexandra ❤️A life without animals is not worth living❤️ (Pixabay); Tumisu (Pixabay)

Music credit: Ray Holman