Dates of work:  2024

MTN’s flagship Digital Skills for Digital Jobs programme was in 2022 to address the digital skills gap and increase youth employment in Africa. It is delivered through a web app, MTN’s Skills Academy, that is freely available to MTN users.   

Trialogue has supported MTN to develop and implement this flagship programme since 2021. In 2024, the MTN Group commissioned Trialogue to conduct a digital skills mapping study to build on MTN’s work over the past three years. The purpose of the research was to: 

  • Support the current work being done by MTN to expand the Skills Academy through various physical hub models i.e. premises to support the online platform.   
  • Analyse the digital skills gap/requirements to assist MTN operating companies (opcos) as they build out the physical hub model. 

 

The digital skills mapping study consisted of desktop research and secondary data analysis, in consultation with MTN. The study analysed the following within the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) region:  

  • Current supply of digital skills  
  • Demand for digital skills, including most relevant specialisations 
  • Peer/comparable interventions 
  • Priority digital and other skills that could be offered through the MTN Skills Academy to maximise impact, on a regional basis. 

 

The research findings informed the evolution of MTN’s Digital Skills for Digital Jobs flagship strategy, including: 

  • Africa’s youthful demographic, with more than 60% of the population under 25 years old 
  • Rapid technological shifts worldwide, leading to profound changes in the both the hard and soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace of the future  
  • Widespread economic exclusion, with approximately 38 million young people in Africa not in employment, education, or training (NEET), and an additional 65 million working but still living in poverty 
  • A demand-supply gap, in which globalised markets require skilled workers but youth in Africa lack opportunities for education, training and workplace readiness.  

 

Trialogue prepared a report and presented the findings and recommendations of the study to MTN, including potential partnership opportunities, and is now supporting MTN with the implementation.