Learn About the Educate! Experience (EXP)

Preparing young people for life after school requires more than access to education. It requires learning that connects to real opportunities and reflects the realities of the labor market. 

For over a decade, Educate! has worked with governments, teachers, and youth to integrate employment-focused learning into secondary education.

In Uganda, Educate! delivers this approach directly through the Educate! Experience (EXP), our longest-running model. Launched in 2009, it has been continuously refined in response to what young people need to succeed.

Today, the model runs in 800+ schools and reaches more than 37,000 learners each year, primarily in Senior 3 and Senior 5. These are critical transition years — a time when young people begin making important decisions about their futures.

Knowledge alone is not enough to navigate life after school. Young people need practical skills and agency — the belief and ability to make decisions, take action, and influence their own outcomes.

That’s what the model is designed to build.

How Learners Build Soft Skills That Strengthen Agency — and Hard Skills that Drive Economic Opportunity

Across the three-term school year, learners engage in hands-on activities to develop transferable skills like communication and critical thinking, alongside business stills like budgeting and market research. 

This structured journey starts with self-leadership and reflection. Students explore who they are, what they value, and how their choices shape their future. From there, they begin identifying problems within their schools and communities and develop practical solutions.

By the second term, those ideas evolve into business models. By starting real businesses, students have an opportunity to practically apply new stills while also generating an income.

In the final term, the focus shifts to transition as learners prepare to sustainably manage their business through ongoing support.

All of this happens within school-based clubs — safe spaces where learners can experiment, test ideas, learn, and try again. 

The Role of Mentors in Delivering the Model

A defining feature of the model is its mentor approach.

Mentors are often alumni of the Educate! Experience. They are selected through a competitive process and participate in a structured training that strengthens their facilitation skills, leadership, and entrepreneurial capacity.

By recruiting Youth Mentors who once participated in EXP, they can offer firsthand insights into how the skills learned translate into real-world businesses. Mentors are also close in age to students, enabling them to connect more easily through the continuous coaching and support.  

As Educate! has scaled to working within national education systems and delivering livelihood bootcamps for young people who cannot access school, EXP has provided foundational learnings on how to effectively drive impact.

EXP remains a cornerstone of Educate!’s secondary school strategy, helping young people see what is possible — and equipping them to act on it.

👉🏿 Watch Francis Kusiimwa, Product Strategist, explain how The Educate! Experience (EXP) works and how mentors and schools come together to build agency in young people.