IDEAS (The Institute for Development, Evaluation, Assistance and Solutions) is a 40 year-old non-profit that has worked in community development on four continents. For more than two decades it has been working in Nicaragua, the second poorest country in western hemisphere. About 1.7 million Nicaraguans live without electricity far away from the national electric grid. Even those who are closer to electric wires suffer “energy poverty.”
Rural Youth’s Lives Are Changed Forever As They Become Nationally Certified Income-Generating Solar Technicians
The TecAp Youth Solar Technician Education Program trains low-income youth in Nicaragua’s rural fair trade coffee growing communities to diagnose, install, repair, and maintain solar powered systems in homes, farms and cooperatives that have no access to electricity. Every year, newly trained youth solar technicians assist hundreds of families to have renewable energy and consistent water access for the first time in their lives.
Previously unemployed or under-employed, youth’s lives are changed forever as they become nationally certified; income-generating solar technicians empowered to make huge difference for their energy poor neighbors.
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Profiles of some of the Solar Micro Technicians trained by and working with TecAp
We have trained and graduated 76 rural youth as solar installers and repairers. They are certified by the National Technical Institute (INATEC). They are youth from low income families who would not have been able to obtain this education without a scholarship. The entity that provided scholarships in 2015 was the First Solar Corporate Charitable Fund of the Toledo Community Foundation. This training allows a graduate to earn by finding clients who desire rooftops systems and also earn by installing their system. In addition, the micro-technician earns by repairing systems and selling replacement parts. Finally, they can earn by selling smaller solar powered items.
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Youth micro-technicians: TecAp’s second type of microfranchisees
TecAp is one of the first microfranchises or even commercial franchises worldwide to have two different types of microfranchisees. The two sets of microfranchisees mutually reinforce each other
The two types of microfranchisees are mutually reinforcing in selling solar energy
TecAp has launched a second type of microfranchisees in 2013. These are underemployed youth from low-income farming families that TecAp is training to be able to assess, install and repair rooftop solar systems. The first type of microfranchisees, launched in mid-2011, is women who sell solar-powered products. Both the youth and the women have a catalog in which are featured rooftop solar systems and their components for replacement parts..