Bridges For Music Academy Assessment

The Bridges Academy is a creative learning space in Langa, Cape Town, offering unemployed youth from under-resourced communities an inspiring and safe environment with access to world-class technology, mentorship and education designed to help them thrive in the world, equipping them with the necessary technical skill and mindset to obtain employment or become a successful entrepreneur in the creative industry. The Bridges Academy facilitates various programs that run every year, with its premier project being the Talent Development Program, which includes 20 young creatives undertaking a five-month intensive music career and self-discovery induction. To date, Bridges Academy has enrolled approximately 800 students into its programs and has provided its alumni access to 400 work opportunities.

Impact Amplifier assessed Bridges Academy’s main program, the Talent Development Program with the following intentions:

• Gather comprehensive information about all incoming, current and past participants as a means of measuring change based on participating in the program;
• Measure the impact of the program (skills learnt and applied, education/career success thus far, employment gained, improvements to living standards); and
• Understand how this impact aligns with the program’s intentions (Theory of Change, Outputs, Outcome and Impact Metrics). 

Post this impact assessment, Impact Amplifier has been supporting Bridges to implement its recommendations and monitor and evaluate its impact on an on-going basis.

January 2025

Bridges for Music Academy is currently working with Impact Amplifier to improve their recruitment process for their programs as well as improving their internal data collection systems that form part of their monitoring and evaluation processes.