F.A.Q
Q: What Is WAVE?
WAVE (West Africa Vocational Education) is a social venture working with unemployed youth (16-30 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 2019, WAVE will empower 25,000 ambitious young West Africans annually with the know-how and expertise to pursue careers in hospitality and retail and beyond.
Q: Why Now?
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.
Q: What Makes WAVE’s Model Unique?
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.
Q: How Can I Get Involved?
Please fill out our Contact Us form. We are still accepting applications for our next training batch. We are also actively seeking new employer partnerships.
Q: How Are We Financially Sustainable?
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.
