Motivar, a social enterprise working to improve the efficiency and distribution of digital education for young Africans, joined thirty other youth-led enterprises to respond to the large skilling and employment gap facing young people.
The policy hackathon, themed “Innovations in Youth Skilling and Employability,” hosted in collaboration between Youth Connekt Africa and the Mastercard Foundation had the presence of funders, government actors, and other stakeholders from across Africa in Kigali, Rwanda
The year’s theme focuses on education – “Educate an African Fit for the 21st Century” – the continent is called upon to review and learn what skills are required for the African and global markets and how these skills and competencies can be transferred at scale and more effectively.
In his remarks, the Rwandan Minister of Youth & Arts, Dr. Utumatwishima Abdallah, highlighted the transformative impact of education and constant learning and how every stakeholder in the room must work to offer that opportunity to every African child.
The Senior Programme Manager at YouthConnekt Africa, Grace Mugabekazi, emphasized why engagements like this must happen and continue to scale across the continent. “9 in 10 young people will not access higher education. 72 million young people are not in education or training. This is a challenge that we must collectively respond to and in some way have done in the last two days of sharing and ideating,” she stated.
Speaking on the event sidelines, Motivar’s founder, Mayowa Olajide Akinleye, lauded YouthConnekt and Mastercard Foundation for highlighting this crucial gap and working to lay the foundation for collaboration, knowledge sharing, and policy design that will potentially cause a transformation in how young Africans are skilled and prepared for the future of work.
The two-day engagement was aimed at identifying and engaging pioneering African solutions to youth skilling and employability and placing young people at the forefront and centre of solution design and implementation. It featured impactful youth-led solutions from 15 countries in Africa, such as Power Learn Project, TDev, Umurava, Digital Skills For Africa, Peza Job Zambia, and Texfad Skill Training, amongst others.
