EDACY Team Blog — This week: Barbara T. Diagne, Student and Business Engager at EDACY, shares how mentoring was an eye-opening experience for her and how essential it is for African Youth to be mentored to develop their careers.
What do you want to become, when you are grown up? Most likely, all of us will remember this question asked at a very early age in primary school, to find out which profession you would like to work in, once an adult.
In Francophone Africa, until senior year of HighSchool, young people are still unsure about their response, as the education is still largely geared towards general fields of specialization (mainly arts and literature, pure sciences, experimental sciences and economics). Only 9% of high-schoolers are following technical and vocational schools leading to job insertion, after graduation (2013 AFD report, on Job Insertion of Young Subsaharan Africans).
Choices of specialisations are as important at the university level. But more often than not, this step is also lightly taken by young high-school graduates who are not always directed according to their interests and promising fields for job insertion, but rather based on their grades at the Baccalauréat national test, among other things. After earning a bachelor degree, many university graduates find themselves still without a job after having spent 16 years of education in high school and university combined. 60% of unemployed in Africa are young people according to a study by the World Bank. How can we better equip young people to be employable in relation to the job market demands and in addition have a clear vision of their professional goals. These are questions, EDACY is seeking to find answers for.
Some years ago, I was once in a similar position. I had no idea after high-school graduation what profession I wanted to work in. It had to be science related, that I knew; but what exactly, I had no clue. Until I was geared a little bit in the right direction by family members and started Engineering studies at university. But I really had my A-Ha moment when I met a female mentor towards my last semester in my first year of university. My mentor Hélène P. was an accomplished project manager in Engineering and a mother of four. A stylish career and family woman, who told us we could do it too: finish university, land our dream job and have a family. But we needed something essential to start with, a plan! A career plan and professional goals. We were a group of five mentees and had regular meetings with Hélène P., both one-on-one and team meetings, where she would ask us about where we were at towards achieving the goals we had defined.
“We needed something essential to start with, a plan! A career plan and professional goals.”
What having a mentor like Hélène P. did for me was three-folds:
1. Making me realize what my true passions were, that I was not in the right engineering field. As a result, I switched in my second year and enjoyed every bit of my new training.
2. Emulate an alumni that I could identify with, a former Engineering student who was a female and a francophone, who was encouraging me: for me, she paved the way and I, a young African woman could do exactly the same, if I gave it my very best!
3. Engage early on with potential employers in my field: I made my first professional resume during that year and landed my first two internships at the end of my second year.
Mentorship was key in my case to help me re-qualify in my true field of interest, gain confidence towards achieving my professional goals and start experiencing the job market with my first two hands-on experience with industries. I believe it is essential for youth to have such mentoring experience at the onset of their professional life.
For young Africans, defining professional goals and career planning is a must. It will help youngsters set long term professional goals and work towards achieving them. Africa is facing major economic challenges and there are areas that are in high demand of qualified workers where young people can become skilled and re-qualify to land or create their first dream job! Once a career plan is made, a first degree or training that is not in-line with this plan, is the occasion for the youth to re-qualify in the true area they yearn for, that can help them reach their potential. Career plans should also be reviewed by experts, i.e., mentors who can guide young persons and give them qualitative feedback and counsel to fine-tune their plans and put necessary realistic steps to put these plans into practice.
“Mentorship was key in my case to help me re-qualify in my true field of interest, gain confidence towards achieving my professional goals and start experiencing the job market”
Dr. Anthony Carnevale, Director in Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce underlines the benefits of mentoring in the following: “Mentoring particularly skills-based mentoring and apprenticeship programs, prepares our future workforce by exposing young people to the world and developing their life skills and vocational skills which are critical to success in today’s economy.” In Senegal, for example, the Plan Sénégal Émergent, laid out by the Government has identified key employment areas for youth including: the agri-business, buildings and public works, port job-activities…. In these areas, mentoring is being put into place to help the youth to be more employable or create their own ventures. One such mentoring endeavour is that of CORAF/WECARD, put in place last June 2016, for selected young entrepreneurs benefiting from mentoring and distance learning sessions through a virtual platform of renown researchers and scientists on agricultural technologies generated under the West African Agricultural Productivity Program (WAAPP), as well as mentoring from accomplished entrepreneurs from the private sector.
Mentoring can be an important stepping stone and life-changing opportunity for youth and as a past mentee back in university, I can attest to its value in guiding one’s career plan. EDACY is bringing these chances to young talents following the FAST software leadership program:
1. To re-qualify in fields that are in high demand in the African Job market.
2. To have access to a pipe of mentors to help youth define their professional project and career plan.
3. Gain confidence in themselves, reach for the stars and become the next innovators to get Africa moving again! (#GetAfricaMoving)
Talents in immersion are soon beginning their mentoring and career planning journey and we are eager for them to discover more of their hidden abilities and keep growing. So, when we ask a talent the following question, what will you be after this training, they might say: “a full-stack software innovator”. That is one thing that we thrive for, at EDACY, an empowered growth for African Youth.
Yours truly,
Barbara T. Diagne
Ready to change the status-quo? Join the digital transformation movement to Get Africa Moving, Again. Pre-register now for our second cohort on www.edacy.com to start your transformative journey and become a software leader by working on innovative projects at top enterprises. Let’s #GetAfricaMoving
Prêt à challenger le status-quo? Rejoins le mouvement de la transformation digitale! Pré-inscrits toi maintenant pour notre 2nde cohorte sur www.edacy.com pour commencer ton parcours transformateur et devenir un leader en développement logiciel en travaillant sur des projets innovants au sein d’entreprises leaders. Let’s#GetAfricaMoving
