Expanding Access to Employability & Entrepreneurship Skills

This project aims to tackle massive youth unemployment in Nigeria by delivering employability skills training, entrepreneurship training, and jobs to 10,000 youth by 2020.

Our project has two components: employability and entrepreneurship. The employability component consists of developing a massive online open course that integrates our curated training approach that up- skills youth in transferable skills: digital literacy, job application preparation, commercial awareness, effective communication, customer relations, negotiation, among others. Participants who successfully complete the 5-month curriculum are invited as preferred job candidates to an annual job fair organised at the end of the training, having been mentored throughout the training programme. Prospective employers at the the job fair include small and medium enterprises, and blue chip companies looking to hire skilled entry-level staff.

The entrepreneurship component is designed to provide support to young entrepreneurs to scale their businesses through masterclasses led and facilitated by Global Shapers working in the private sector. The Masterclasses will cover critical areas such as strategy, operations, risk management, marketing, business communication, and value chain management. Promising youth entrepreneurs in high impact industries are selected through a competitive process, and are mentored by Abuja Global Shapers over the 6 months of the masterclasses. Participants are expected to increase their workforce among other metrics of success. Job seekers from the employability component are also matched to the entrepreneurs in the entrepreneurship component. 

Fifty percent of Nigeria’s 64 million youth are unemployed (Nigeria National Bureau of Statistics, 2012). The project is designed to catalyse the elimination of youth poverty and restiveness by reducing unemployment. Although young people make up the majority of Nigeria’s workforce, there are important behavioural, technical, and industrial skills gaps that make this population “unemployable” (World Bank, 2014). Unless addressed, Nigeria’s youth will lose a golden opportunity to break out of the cycle of poverty and Nigeria will lose the opportunity to harness its demographic dividend to spur inclusive economic growth. 

We have seen more than a dozen young people who have come through our programme get jobs, including two participants getting international jobs last year. 

We expect to successfully train 100,000 young Nigerians in employability skills by developing the curriculum into a massive online open course (MOOC). We anticipate that of these youth, approximately 10,000 of them will be able to secure jobs in the formal sector of the economy. An additional 500 youth will also benefit directly and indirectly from our entrepreneur masterclasses through online curation of the business content and mentoring provided by the Shapers. 

Track completions using website enrolment analytics - 100,000 people in Nigeria complete MOOC online or via mobile phone

Track employment status through web-based survey - 10,000 people in Nigeria gainfully employed

Track business status through web-based survey - 500 people expand their businesses

The use of a free access MOOC with in-person free workshops is new in Nigeria. No other partners we know have tried to provide this to job seekers. It has been tried in Kenya and the U.S., but not in Africa's most populous country.

We are a group of youth, some from underserved communities who have vetted and talked through this solution.

Beneficiaries will access the MOOC through University information technology centres, which will be provided free of charge for them to use; similar to the Open University Model in West Africa, which provides free facilities for individuals to have access to education.

We plan to fundraise from corporate sponsors and donors, in addition to using income from other grants and consulting work that we have completed as an organisation.

Internet access and availability of electricity at the University Hubs where the MOOC will be deployed, and facilitators gather to implement the solution.

https://youtu.be/gz1m3IoDCQI

We hope to gain access to new ideas and mentorship and expertise to scale and refine our project.

Ventures Platform Hub

Mckinsey Generation