This is the "GreenVETAfrica" project, a two-year project of the "Erasmus+" program co-funded by the European Commission; its aim is to foster a technical vocational pathway for jobless youth in Nigeria and Ghana in two local training centers.
The project is being developed by a consortium with three European partners - AREA (Italy), Federazione CNOS-FAP (Italy), and Asociación Mundus (Spain); and four African partners - Whizzy Academy and Presbyterian Relief Services And Development (Ghana); Pan Atlantic University Foundation and Lagos Waste Management Authority (Nigeria).
The project's ambition is to contribute to the "Green and Digital Transition" (Twin Transition) in line with the ambitious environmental goals of the European "Green Deal" and the Europe-Africa Strategic Partnership. This twin transition is key to adopting a circular development model, transforming linear industrial value chains to minimize waste and pollution, make better use of waste generated, and ensure environmental standards. This transition requires skilled professionals at all levels.
The project addresses the absence of technical profiles, in West Africa (in Nigeria, Ghana in particular) where environmental studies and technology training are offered exclusively at the university level and there are no programs to train technical profiles to respond to job vacancies in the environmental sector, particularly in waste management.
"GreenVETAfrica" aims to strengthen the training capacities of the project's technical partner institutions, define an innovative vocational training program for green waste management and micro-entrepreneurship, which will be pilot-tested with 100 students in the two countries. At the end of the training activity, the project will facilitate the students' entry into the labor market through meetings with companies active in the collection, processing, and recycling of municipal and industrial waste.
Educational materials will then be made available online to promote the replicability of the program in other schools and countries.
"We are very proud of this project, which was born thanks to a solid knowledge of the reality and needs of the labor market in West Africa and a network of international partners of the highest level," said Adriano Mauro, AREA founder and project coordinator. "Our team is already at work coordinating the project activities and we will also have the opportunity to test an immersive digital solution for distance learning that we are developing.
Learn more at www.greenvetafrica.eu - https://twitter.com/GreenVETAfrica
