Stutern invests in youth by training them to be engineers, product designers, data scientists, and product managers without paying tuition until hired. As part of the training, the learners get an on-the-job learning experience, where they further learn to collaborate within a team and adopt the technical and soft-skills workflow followed by most successful tech companies. Graduates from Stutern are hired remotely and on-site by companies of all sizes locally and globally across 4 continents and counting.
The Problem
- Skills Mismatch in the Labour Market: Every year, 50% of the 500,000 tertiary-educated Nigerian graduates do not find wage-earning jobs in the formal sector because of the mismatch between the education system and the needs of employers. This group of Nigerian youths is young urban educated youth who are underemployed or seeking wage employment in the formal sector.
- Gender Gap in Technology: The labor market tends to favor male candidates over female candidates because men mostly do not have the restraints of household and childcare duties. Also, society has a perception of what is the “right work” for women. The systemic barriers faced by young women to find and retain employment include bias, gender-based violence, wage gap, and lack of adequate access to child care.
- COVID-19 induced business closures: Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, employed youths stand the risk of losing their jobs if they do not have the skills for the future of work. The latest university or TVET holders in Nigeria have little to zero working experience as they are entering the job market. The competition for limited available jobs is increasingly fierce, leaving them to remain unemployed for a long time, delaying the opportunity to gain valuable work experience.
The Solution
- Bridging the Skills Gap: Stutern closes the skills gap by matching the demands of employers to digital skills training. Tech jobs are highly in-demand with high pay globally. However, there is a dire need for youth to acquire the technical and soft skills that can get them and keep them on the jobs.
- Increased Female Enrolment: To increase female representation in the technology industry, more young women will be trained in digital and employability skills and would be placed into decent digital jobs. This will prepare the women to excel at these digital jobs. It will also position them in the pipeline for career progression into senior roles. We will further work with employers to ensure a conducive working environment for youths, especially for women.
- Resilient Career in Technology: By promoting the decent income, job security, and career path that comes with acquiring digital skills, youth will be prepared for a resilient and life-long career instead of one job. We will be equipping youth with the skills of the future so as to make them resilient and prepare them for a life-long career beyond a more competitive post-COVID-19 world.
Additionality
CFYE Support:
Our overall goal is to train and place more youth into decent digital jobs. With the CFYE support, by the year 2024, Stutern and the consortium partner, SOS CVN would have upskilled 1,750 youths and the top 72% of those youths (1,260) would be placed into decent digital jobs. We will be reaching ten times more women than we have previously reached in past training programs. With the CFYE funding, this consortium will equip the youth with the skills of the future and empower them for a resilient, life-long career in the tech industry.