WAVE is doing this by getting young people work ready and helping employers find talent for their business so they can focus on growing it.
Partnered with over 30 growth partners who have reached over 70,000 youth improving their employability skills
Over 70% employment rate among alumni.
Supported a network of over 5,000 job seekers.
x3 income transformation one year post training
Partnered with over 600 businesses.
To level the playing field for underserved African youth by building an ecosystem that supports relevant skills development and increased incomes for work-ready youth.
A world where every young African has the opportunity to become what they imagine.
Putting people first
Integrity
Accountability
Willingness to learn
Paradigm change
We have upskilled thousands of youth with our proven model:
We identify self-motivated, underserved youth who are willing to learn and determined to succeed.
We train them in industry-relevant skills that employees seek, such as effective communication and problem-solving.
We match work-ready youth with our growing network of employer partners.
We provide post-training support through monthly workshops and mentorship.
We identify self-motivated, underserved youth who are willing to learn and determined to succeed.
"My salary was increased twice because my boss was impressed with my work ethics"
- Yusra Akinwunmi
With the tremendous support of all our partners (funding partners, growth partners & employer partners), we were able to reach and serve over 1500 young men and women with 69% of them...
Read moreNigeria's unemployment rate has been disproportionately borne by the youth, with almost 30% of them currently out of work...
Read moreWAVE (West Africa Vocational Education) is a social venture working with unemployed youth (18-35 year olds) in West Africa (starting in Lagos, Nigeria). WAVE launched in August 2013 with a focus on screening, training, and placing local West Africans in hospitality and retail jobs in the region. By 2018, WAVE scaled its impact to reach more young people across West Africa so that they are able to start a successful career and build a brighter future for themselves.
West Africa is at a crossroads. In major West African economies, youth unemployment rates range from 40 to 85 percent and continues to worsen as the population increases. Education in the region is severely failing to provide young people with the skills needed to participate and compete in the job marketplace.
We screen our candidates for innate talent, and recruit the best regardless of connections or privilege. To ensure we can engage different types of learners and put trainees in charge of their own learning, the training is based on experiential instructional methods rather than a traditional lecture-based style and promotes a combination of interactive learning strategies.
You can contact us here. We are still accepting applications for our next training batch. We are also actively seeking new employer partnerships.
WAVE chooses to be a financially sustainable not-for-profit entity as we believe that our mission can be better served in broadening access to as many youths as possible.Our two-sided business model aims to share the cost of training between the trainee and the employer.
We take learnings from our innovative labs (academies) and integrate them into our engagement with growth partners looking to increase employability outcomes
for their students or youth demographic.
Discover the inspiring narratives of Andrew Ayim, Chef Gibbs, and Emmanuel Ajani as they share their remarkable journeys through the transformative WAVE program. Ayim, Gibbs, and Ajani articulate the profound impact of WAVE on their personal and professional development. Grateful for the invaluable skills acquired through the program, they underscore the importance of WAVE in fostering positive transformation. Their testimonials serve as a testament to the program's efficacy in equipping individuals with the tools needed to thrive in their respective fields.