New matchmaking platform could help to close the skills gap

The East African Community (EAC), through its project Digital Skills for an Innovative East African Industry (dSkills@EA), has launched an online skills matchmaking platform for young people in the East African countries of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.

The platform, Skillsmatch, was launched during the YouLead Africa Summit in Arusha, Tanzania on 9 November 2021.

The purpose of the platform, which is supported by artificial intelligence, is to link young graduates with businesses for jobs, internships, and applied masters theses. Companies will submit the requirements for their candidate and the system will match them with a qualified young professional.

The aim is to bridge the skills gap, especially regarding digital skills for the application and development of digital products and services that are needed in the region’s industry.

A market-appropriate pool of talent

“Our goal is to help the youth in the EAC become better skilled to lead transformational change in the business environment under the current trend of digitalisation,” Regine Hess, German ambassador to Tanzania, said.

“Together, we have an incredible responsibility and opportunity to share our experiences in an authentic way and ensure that our collaborative efforts are shaping the next generation of youth employment and innovation transfer,” she said.

Gaspard Banyankimbona, executive secretary at the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), said more effort was needed to support universities in the region to produce graduates that are relevant for the job market to reduce youth unemployment.

“We urge companies to use the Skillsmatch platform by supporting young professionals to gain practical experience through internships,” he said.

John Bosco Kalisa, head of the East African Business Council, said that nearly nine in 10 executives and managers say their organisations either face skills gaps already or expect gaps to develop within the next five years.

“The workforce of one-third of companies across East Africa face disruptions resulting from technology and market trends that require reskilling of professionals; thus, it is relevant that the market has available a pool of talent that can help support businesses for socio-economic growth.”

Private-sector collaboration is key

The innovation hub dSkills@EA, which is part of the technical development cooperation between the EAC and Germany, builds on its predecessor, Centre of Excellence for ICT in East Africa (CENIT@EA).

The project will run for three years until 2024. It will continue to support CENIT@EA, established at the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST) in Arusha, Tanzania, and its masters in embedded and mobile systems (MSc EMoS). Currently, 96 students from the six EAC partner states are enrolled in the programme in three cohorts.

In addition, dSkills@EA expands on the digital skills training already offered to unemployed graduates and university lecturers throughout the EAC, such as the Digital Skills Accelerator. This is in addition to the masters programme Embedded and Mobile Systems.

With the industry as an ultimate beneficiary of these digital skills, collaboration with the private sector is a key element of dSkills@EA.

In this regard, the project can build on the ICT4Business dialogue platform and existing collaboration with companies like the German multinational software corporation SAP, IBM, or the Ugandan Kiira Motors Corporation.

The dSkills@EA programme is expected to improve the digital innovation and entrepreneurship capacity of young East African students at their ideation phase at universities in the EAC through training, a regional network of innovation hubs, multi-stakeholder dialogues, and matchmaking mechanisms with companies.

The project is implemented by the IUCEA, CENIT@EA at the NM-AIST, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and an East African-German academic consortium, including the German Academic Exchange Service or DAAD, and the University of Oldenburg in Germany.