Twenty-year-old Vincentian educator and technologist Noah Horne has launched YouthLink SVG, a locally developed digital platform designed to make it easier for young people across St. Vincent and the Grenadines to discover opportunities.
YouthLink, which was officially launched on Saturday, brings together jobs, scholarships, internships, training programmes, grants, competitions, volunteer opportunities and events in one place. The platform currently features more than 70 approved opportunities from local, regional and international organisations.
For Horne, the idea grew from personal experience. After graduating from the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Community College in 2024, where he studied computer science, he began searching for employment and found that opportunities were often scattered across Facebook pages, websites and other social-media platforms.
“When I finished college and started looking for opportunities, everything was scattered. You might find a job on one Facebook page, a scholarship somewhere else or an internship on another platform. If you didn’t happen to see the post at the right time, you could completely miss it,” Horne said.
The problem was not new to him. While in secondary school, Horne had noticed that many students were unfamiliar with scholarships and other opportunities, including where to find them and what was required to qualify.
“Instead of young people having to search through ten different pages every day, I wanted there to be one place where they could go and see what opportunities are available to them,” he said.
Horne’s interest in technology began early. Growing up in South Rivers, he was encouraged by his parents to take part in technology programmes.
In 2017, he attended a STEM summer programme where he studied computer systems and game development.
A year later, while in Form 2, Horne and his cousin Myles Jones won an NTRC technology competition with Agri Marketplace, an app designed to connect farmers and buyers digitally.
His journey later included computer science studies at SVGCC, web application development training through an OECS digital-skills scholarship, and work as an educator at Mountain View Adventist Academy.
He also founded the school’s Tech Club and mentored students who won national robotics competitions in 2025 and 2026.
In 2026, Horne returned to the NTRC’s iCode784 competition with Jadiel Billingy under the name “The Mandem”.
Six of the nine apps they submitted advanced to the top 10, and the pair placed second with EcoTrack SVG. The Mandem later developed into a local technology business providing mobile-device repair services and digital solutions.
By early 2026, Horne decided to focus on turning YouthLink into a public platform. Before launch, he demonstrated it to institutions and organisations, including YASIP through the Zero Hunger Trust Fund, and received encouraging feedback.
YouthLink allows young people to search, filter, save and share opportunities. Registered organisations can create profiles, publish and manage listings, and standard opportunity posting is currently free.
Organisations may also enable YouthLink’s in-app application system, allowing applicants to submit résumés, CVs and supporting documents directly through the platform.
Some listings are posted directly by registered organisations, while others are identified from legitimate public sources and clearly marked “publicly sourced”.
Horne is now encouraging young Vincentians to use the platform and inviting businesses, government agencies, educational institutions, NGOs, youth organisations and other opportunity providers to come onboard.
“The opportunity that changes your life might already exist. Sometimes the problem is simply knowing that it’s there. That’s the gap I want YouthLink to help close,” Horne said.