Although many in the developing world now have access to microloans, of the 50 million borrowers worldwide, most are middle-aged women. Morningstar aims to research the theory of training young adults in vocations, and at completion of vocational programming, the trainee would become a microloan borrower at an earlier age.

In line with Morningstar’s desire to aid the world’s poor who are young and do not have access to vocational schooling or financial services, Morningstar has developed a plan to deliver those services. The model is for young men and women and would guide them out of poverty before they are middle aged and traditionally able to access microloans.

The Morningstar plan consists of vocational training, followed by a mentoring component leading ultimately to a microfinance loan. Each participant would begin by being involved in a vocational training program. The trainees then learn a craft in which they are interested and that will eventually earn them a sufficient living to feed their family, marry if they choose and educate their children. Morningstar hopes to test this theory through partnerships with both existing vocational training and microfinance institutions.