Understanding Soft and Digital Skills of Youth in Nigeria
West Africa Vocational Education (WAVE) envisions a world where every young African can become what they imagine. It aims to level the playing field by teaching young beneficiaries about key soft and digital skills, either directly through its own bootcamps and trainings, or indirectly through collaborating with other partners across Nigeria and overseas. In total, WAVE was part of the training of over 20,000 beneficiaries indirectly through its growth partners in less than its 10 years of existence and it has also assisted the recruitment of many of its beneficiaries to employment opportunities with its partners.
This tool will ask you very thorough questions to tell you where you are and give you directions to where you could be. It's great for career development, as well as for own personal development goals as it helps with your own career projection.
WAVE saw in the partnership with SkillLab an opportunity to add value to its beneficiaries in 3 distinctive ways. First, by helping young people to understand the informal experiences they have had and what skills they developed in them, and, as important, to showcase that in a CV that now would not be empty. Second, by helping WAVE to grapes the aggregate of skill supply and career interest of its beneficiaries and, based on that data, to help it tailor the most needed and desired quarterly master classes to help bridge the main skill gaps. Last but not least, WAVE wanted SkillLab to be helpful for its beneficiaries' career planning and projection - working for them as a career GPS.
According to Mariam, project manager of the partnership with SkillLab, the aspects that most caught her eye were how in-depth and thorough the app felt, as well as the ability to understand the gaps towards the beneficiaries' career goals. She also commented on how much the CV was beneficial for WAVE and its beneficiaries, as now they could see a specific skillset and prepare themselves accordingly to job processes.
My experience with SkillLab was eye opening as it helps me to detail my skills to future employers and to have a stronger CV for job applications
"Eye-opening" is how Bilqis, a beneficiary from the partnership, would describe the SkillLab tool. When Bilqis heard about SkillLab, her main expectations were towards helping her with the creation of a CV. Though this expectation was met, Bilqis says that her experience with the app went even further by helping her to transmit confidence in her skills to her future employers. For more stories like Bilqis' that both SkillLab & WAVE aim for a continued long-term partnership.
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