20-Year-Old Vincentian Builds Digital Platform To Help Young People Find Opportunities 

By S.Browne. Updated 12:33 p.m., Wednesday, September 23, 2026, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).

At 20 years old, Vincentian educator and technologist Noah Horne is turning a problem he experienced as a young person into a digital platform designed to help others find opportunities more easily.

Horne is the founder of YouthLink SVG, a locally developed platform that brings jobs, scholarships, internships, training programmes, grants, competitions, volunteer opportunities and events together in one place.

The platform officially launched to the public on September 17, 2026,  and already features more than 70 approved opportunities spanning local, regional and international opportunities. YouthLink SVG is now available at http://youthlinksvg.com/.

For Horne, however, YouthLink is about more than technology. It grew from his own experience of trying to find opportunities as a student and later as a graduate entering the job market.

“Even from secondary school, I noticed that a lot of young people, myself included, did not always know about the opportunities available to us, especially things such as scholarships, internships and training programmes,” Horne said.

He said the problem became even more apparent after he graduated from the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College in 2024, where he studied Computer Science, and began looking for employment.

Opportunities existed, he said, but information about them was often spread across different Facebook pages, websites, Instagram accounts and individual organisations.

“If you did not happen to see a post at the right time, you could easily miss it,” Horne said.

Rather than accepting that as simply part of the process, Horne decided to build a solution.

He had originally developed the concept for YouthLink as one of several technology projects, but in early 2026 decided to focus on turning it into something that could be used by the public.

“I chose YouthLink SVG because it was the project I felt most personally connected to,” Horne said.

He spent much of the first half of 2026 developing and refining the platform while demonstrating it to organisations and institutions and gathering feedback.

YouthLink allows users to search and filter opportunities, view full details, save listings to their accounts and share opportunities with others through platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

Young people do not have to create an account simply to view an opportunity.

Depending on how an organisation accepts applications, users may be directed to an external website, instructed to apply by email or, where the organisation has enabled YouthLink’s in-app application system, apply directly through the platform.

For in-app applications, organisations can request information, résumés or CVs and supporting documents. Applicants may also be able to view updates to their application status when an organisation chooses to provide them.

The platform is free for young people to use, while organisations can currently create accounts and publish standard opportunity listings without charge.

Horne said keeping access free is central to the purpose of the platform.

“One of my priorities is making sure that basic access to opportunities remains accessible to young people, because that is the whole reason the platform was created,” he said.

YouthLink obtains opportunities through two main channels.

Registered organisations can submit opportunities directly to the platform, where they go through an approval process before being made publicly available.

YouthLink also identifies opportunities from publicly available sources, including official organisation websites, verified social-media pages and other legitimate public announcements.

Those listings are marked “Publicly sourced”, allowing users to distinguish them from opportunities posted directly by registered organisations.

For publicly sourced opportunities, Horne said YouthLink attempts to trace the information back to the original organisation or official source and checks key details such as application information and deadlines before publishing.

The platform does not collect applications for publicly sourced opportunities unless the organisation offering the opportunity has registered with YouthLink and chosen to use its application system.

Horne’s path to YouthLink began long before the platform was launched.

His interest in technology developed during childhood, with his parents encouraging him to pursue it.

In 2017, he participated in a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) summer programme, where he was introduced to computer systems and game development.

The following year, while in Form 2, Horne and his cousin Myles Jones entered the secondary category of the National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission (NTRC) technology competition.

Their project, Agri Marketplace, was designed to help bridge the gap between farmers and buyers digitally, and the pair won the competition.

The experience helped establish an approach that has continued throughout Horne’s technology journey: identifying a local problem and exploring how technology could help address it.

Horne later attended another NTRC summer programme in 2021 before enrolling at the St Vincent and the Grenadines Community College in 2022 to pursue Computer Science.

He also completed studies in web application development through an Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) digital-skills scholarship.

After graduating in 2024, Horne became an educator at Mountain View Adventist Academy. His teaching has included Agricultural Science, Mathematics, Information Technology, Physics and Biology.

He has also taught Information Technology online through STEM SVG, helping students prepare for Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) examinations.

His work with young people extended beyond the classroom.

In 2025, Horne was given the opportunity to prepare and mentor teams for the inaugural National Centre for Technological Innovation (NCTI) robotics competition. Mountain View Adventist Academy won the national competition, before returning the following year and winning again.

Later in 2025, he founded the Mountain View Adventist Academy Tech Club, giving students additional exposure to technology, digital skills and practical project development.

The club held its first Web Design Summer Programme in 2026.

Horne’s technology work continued in 2026 when he returned to the NTRC technology competition, now known as iCode784, alongside his friend Jadiel Billingy.

The pair competed in the open category under the name The Mandem and submitted nine applications, with six advancing to the top 10 for the finals.

Their projects included EcoTrack SVG, VincyVenture, YouthLink SVG, AgriAssist, MediConnect SVG and Island Cart.

The pair ultimately placed second with EcoTrack SVG.

Although YouthLink began as a competition project, Horne eventually wanted to take his ideas beyond competitions and prototypes and develop solutions that could be used by the Vincentian public.

The name The Mandem also evolved beyond the competition.

What began as a team name eventually became a local technology business, providing mobile-device repair services while developing digital solutions.

Horne said his parents played an important role in encouraging him to turn the idea into a real business.

“I kept brushing it off because I was young and turning it into a real business sounded very serious and like a lot of work,” he said.

He eventually took their advice.

“My parents kept pushing and encouraging me, and eventually I gave in. Looking back now, I’m glad I did,” Horne said.

That same encouragement has remained a recurring theme in his journey.

“I’ve had a lot of people encourage me throughout the years, especially my family. There were times when they saw more in what I was doing than I saw myself,” he said.

By early 2026, Horne wanted to turn some of his technology projects into practical tools.

He initially hoped to develop three projects simultaneously, but the workload eventually forced him to choose one.

YouthLink stood out because its purpose was connected directly to something he had experienced himself.

“YouthLink was the one I really wanted to see become something real. The problem behind it was something I had already experienced myself, so I knew it was the project I wanted to keep working on,” Horne said.

Before its public launch, he demonstrated the platform to organisations and institutions, including through the Youth Agriculture Science Internship Programme (YASIP) of the Zero Hunger Trust Fund.

He said the feedback helped encourage him to continue developing the platform.

Since launching on September 17, Horne has been careful not to overstate the platform’s early response.

“Because YouthLink only officially launched on September 17, it is still very early, so I would not want to overstate the level of adoption after only a few days,” he said.

For now, his focus is increasing awareness among young people and encouraging more organisations that provide opportunities to join the platform.

He also wants YouthLink to become useful to organisations, rather than simply another place to advertise vacancies or programmes.

Registered organisations can create profiles, publish opportunities and manage their listings through an organisation dashboard. Those that choose to use YouthLink’s in-app application system can also manage applicants through the platform.

Horne said YouthLink is intended to complement, rather than replace, organisations’ existing websites and social-media platforms.

“Facebook is still useful, and YouthLink isn’t trying to replace an organisation’s social media,” he said.

“The difference is that somebody following your Facebook page probably already knows your organisation exists. YouthLink puts your opportunity in front of people who are actively looking for opportunities.”

As the platform grows, Horne plans to expand the number and variety of opportunities available, bring more credible organisations onto the platform and improve tools that help organisations manage applicants.

He also wants to improve how users discover opportunities relevant to them and strengthen features such as notifications and tools for keeping track of opportunities.

Ultimately, Horne wants YouthLink to become a familiar starting point for young Vincentians looking for their next opportunity.

“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,” he said.

END