Talent and productivity
Better entry pathways reduce recruitment friction and help firms build capable, engaged workforces.
Youth employment. Business growth. Measurable impact.
Turn youth potential into productive work.
Social Impact International helps businesses, governments, investors and development partners decide where and how to create more and better jobs for young people—by aligning sectors, employers, skills, finance and policy around real demand.
Youth jobsSector choiceSchool-to-workJob quality
The investment case
The next decade is a demographic test—and an economic opportunity.
Young people need more than courses and encouragement. They need firms that are growing, sectors that can absorb talent, credible routes from learning to work, and jobs that provide earnings, capability, security and progression.
For employers, that means stronger talent pipelines and productivity. For governments and investors, it means converting demographic pressure into enterprise growth, tax revenue, domestic demand and social stability.
See what SII helps decide →
1.2 billionyoung people will reach working age in the Global South over the coming decade—while only about 420 million jobs are expected on current trajectories.
Why invest
Youth employment produces returns across a lifetime—not just at the moment of placement.
Skills and progression
Early work experience compounds through occupational learning, credentials and lifetime earnings.
Enterprise and markets
Young workers and entrepreneurs strengthen suppliers, production, innovation and local demand.
Wellbeing and stability
Good work can provide income, purpose, connection and a credible future—while supporting public revenues and social resilience.
What we do
Decision support for youth jobs—not another training programme looking for a problem.
SII helps clients decide where to act, which sectors and occupations can create opportunity, what constraints must change, and how to measure business, economic and social returns.
Youth employment opportunity diagnostics
Country, regional and value-chain analysis identifying job-rich opportunities, target youth cohorts and binding constraints.
Employer-led workforce and skills strategy
Occupational demand, recruitment pathways, apprenticeships, credentials, provider alignment, retention and progression.
Job-rich sector and value-chain strategy
Sector choice, enterprise growth, local suppliers, infrastructure and investment conditions linked to youth jobs.
Youth programme and investment design
Public-private models, financing, governance, safeguards and implementation plans connected to real demand.
Impact, wellbeing and return measurement
Job quantity, quality, earnings, progression, wellbeing, productivity, fiscal effects and additionality.
Business growth, R&D and incentives
Innovation, expansion and supplier strategies that create commercially durable youth employment.
How we work
Begin with the youth employment decision—not a pre-packaged intervention.
SII combines economic evidence with employer, youth and local-system knowledge. The result should be a sharper choice, not merely a longer report.
- 1
Define the youth cohort and outcome
Clarify age bands, barriers, geography, job quality and the decision the client must make.
- 2
Find credible demand
Identify growing firms, sectors, value chains and occupations with realistic entry and progression.
- 3
Test the system
Examine education, finance, infrastructure, governance, recruitment and delivery capacity.
- 4
Design the investment
Choose interventions, roles, financing, sequencing, safeguards and prerequisites.
- 5
Measure what changes
Track job-years, earnings, stability, progression, wellbeing, productivity and additionality.
EDGE-B
Better youth-employment decisions before bigger investments.
EDGE-B examines five country lenses: Enabling business environment, Demographics, Governance, Education and skills, and Business investment readiness. It then tests whether specific sectors can create additional, accessible and better jobs for young people.
E Enabling businessD DemographicsG GovernanceE EducationB Business investment
Discuss an EDGE-B diagnosticYouth opportunity and need →
Build conditionsHigh opportunity, lower feasibility
PrioritizeHigh opportunity, high feasibility
De-prioritizeLower opportunity, lower feasibility
Selective actionFeasible but lower additional youth impact
Implementation feasibility →
Where we focus
Sectors where young people can enter, learn, advance and earn.
No sector is automatically job-rich. SII tests market demand, youth access, job quality, progression, local multipliers, resilience and business returns.
Agrifood systems and agribusiness
Processing, storage, logistics, services and stronger rural-to-urban value chains.
Manufacturing and circular economy
Production, suppliers, repair, maintenance and technical progression.
Health and the care economy
Durable demand and occupational ladders from entry roles to advanced practice.
Infrastructure, energy and climate adaptation
Construction, installation, maintenance and technical trades that also enable wider economic activity.
Tourism and place-based services
Accessible local employment when seasonality, quality, resilience and progression are designed in.
Digital systems, finance, MSME growth and innovation
Capabilities that help promising sectors scale and hire—not automatic mass-employment sectors by themselves.
Who we work with
Leaders who need a defensible answer to “where should we invest in youth jobs—and why?”
Businesses and industry associationsYouth talent pipelines, retention, supplier growth and workforce strategy.
Governments and investment agenciesJobs strategy, sector selection, skills alignment, incentives and regional development.
Development finance and impact investorsPipeline prioritization, additionality, technical assistance and portfolio measurement.
Foundations, UN agencies and international NGOsDemand-led programme design, public-private partnerships and transition from training outputs to employment outcomes.
Local institutions and implementation partnersCountry evidence, youth voice, employer engagement and practical delivery.
BHBrian HarriganMBA, P.Eng.
Founder and Principal
Founder and Principal
About SII
Principal-led advice across business, jobs and development.
SII is led by Brian Harrigan, an engineer, MBA and international-development executive whose career has crossed business advisory, innovation incentives, food systems, workforce development, resource mobilization and organizational leadership.
The model is deliberately lean: direct senior attention, low overhead and a curated network of local and specialist associates. Clients get the person doing the thinking—not a junior relay team with excellent matching lanyards.
Profit meets purpose
Better youth jobs. Stronger businesses. More resilient economies.
Start a conversation
Trying to turn youth demographics, skills or investment into productive work?
Describe the decision, geography, youth group and sector. SII will provide a candid view of whether it can help and what a useful first step could be.
info@socialimpactinternational.caReplace this placeholder address before public launch.