We develop hidden digital talents in Africa.
A Ghanaian-German Initiative
Africa is the largest untapped talent pool in the world.
Talents need structure, inspiration and jobs to grow. Our initiative works hand in hand with local schools, universities and international organizations to develop digital talents and bring them in meaningful jobs.
Our program is driven by our experience as entrepreneurs in Africa and a pro-bono activity of our IT start-ups. Grow Ghana supports the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 4).
About us
Our story started 5 years ago – we went for a consulting project in Ghana and immediately fell in love with the country. We decided to leave our jobs to build a German-Ghanaian ecosystem, based on the principle of social entrepreneurship. We founded local start-ups in tech and UX design to serve German clients with a delivery team from Ghana.
As the companies grew, we realized that training on the job is just a start, but it needs more for a real change. Consequently, the Grow Ghana initiative is targeting young talents to train digital & soft skills as early as possible. The program is supported by our start-ups and the next step in our mission to develop digital talents in Africa.
Ulrich,
Co-Founder & Partner Management
Benjamin,
Co-Founder & Program Lead
Gifty,
Co-Founder, Program Manager
Wendel,
Content Expert
John,
Content Expert
Ulrich,
Co-Founder & Partner Management
Living in Munich
Benjamin,
Co-Founder & Program Lead
Living in Kokrobite
Gifty,
Co-Founder, Program Manager
Living in Kokrobite
John,
Content Expert
Living in Accra
Wendel,
Content Expert
Living in Accra
Get Involved
We are always searching for partners and supporters for our program.
Our program is executed by a local team on local schools, supported by global volunteers. There are several opportunities how to contribute and partner with us:
To get involved and create impact with us, please get in touch with our local Manager Gifty Nana Yaa:
To get involved and create impact with us, please get in touch with our local Manager Gifty Nana Yaa:
The program
Enabling job creation through education
Program structure: 5 skill areas
Our vision is to enable meaningful and sustainable job creation in Africa. And to empower people who are often overlooked: the hidden talents of Africa – e.g. young women in small villages with no access to higher education.
In theory, there are a lot of job opportunities that could be created: International corporates are highly interested to outsource value creation to Africa. And promising local start-ups are rising and strive to create impact.
In practice, they all need a pre-qualified workforce with the right mindset and digital skills to realize those job potentials sustainably.
Out of our experience as entrepreneurs in Africa, we derived a curriculum based on 5 skill areas which we found critical for future employees to create value and impact. We use experimental coding and gamification as tools to teach & train the skill areas in practice.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS
TOOL SKILLS
SELF ORGANIZATION
CRITICAL THINKING
EMPHATIC LEADERSHIP
Enabling job creation through education
Our vision is to enable meaningful and sustainable job creation in Africa. And to empower people who are often overlooked: the hidden talents of Africa – e.g. young women in small villages with no access to higher education.
In theory, there are a lot of job opportunities that could be created: International corporates are highly interested to outsource value creation to Africa. And promising local start-ups are rising and strive to create impact.
In practice, they all need a pre-qualified workforce with the right mindset to realize those job potentials sustainably.
Out of our experience as entrepreneurs in Africa, we derived a curriculum based on 5 skill areas which we found critical for future employees to create value and impact. We target young students in schools who are eager to learn and searching for additional educational input to make a difference.
Program structure: 5 skill areas
Our Values
We believe in our six values:
- Grow Ghana is a non-profit initiative and strives to create tangible impact for the society
- The initiative aims to impact 2 sides equally:
- The pupils and students in the schools
(job-relevant skills, access to job-market ) - Our team incl. our global volunteers
(personal growth by intercultural exchange & coaching)
- The pupils and students in the schools
- We never replace local teachers – our program is an addition to the governmental curriculum
- We are not competing with other NGOs or programs, but strive for cooperation & synergies
- We are self-critical and want to improve constantly
- We always show full respect to our environment – incl. people with different opinions and our nature
Curriculum
Curriculum (excerpt)
| 2019/20 | COMMUNICATION SKILLS | TOOL SKILLS | SELF ORGANIZATION | CRITICAL THINKING | EMPHATIC LEADERSHIP | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Junior High School | Open communication | IT basics | Project work in team (coding challenge) |
Discussion of newspapers | Understanding of others | |||||
| Precise communication | Web research | Time management | Being creative w/ LEGO | |||||||
| Newspaper comprehension | Junior Coding | Reasoning w/ coding | ||||||||
| Senior High School |
Open communication adv. | Web research adv. | Personal target setting | Discussion of newspaper articles & politics |
View point analysis | |||||
| Precise communication adv. | Crowd funding possibilities | Self motivation | Coding brainteaser | |||||||
| Group discussion “battle” | Coding Basics | Project case (extended) | ||||||||
| University/ College cooperation w/  |
MS PowerPoint Advanced | Business case studies in groups (competition) | Client orientation & understanding |
|||||||
| MS Excel Advanced | Ethic company building | |||||||||
| SCRUM & Agile Mgmt | “Out-of-the-box” leadership | |||||||||
All topics are extra-curricular – workshop based format (10-20 students) – topics are modular – at least 1 topic per week per school |
||||||||||
*scroll left or right to see full curriculum
Our partners
Our partners contribute to the program by creating content & material pro-bono for us. On top, they help to create future jobs for our alumni.
Impressions
Partner School
Expansion of partner school
Gold Coast
Partner School II
Local supermarket
School principal at graduation ceremony
Talent scouting
Graduation celebration
Job placement in partner start-up
Contact
Grow GH EDU Initiative Ltd.,
B22 Langma Road,
Kokrobite
Greater Accra
