GREEN Solar Academy and Valentin Software, alongside the Takoradi Technical University in Ghana and KYA-Energy Institute in Togo, are providing Solar PV training and placement opportunities for graduates. This training is financial supported by Germany’s develoPPP.de fund.
Under the training scheme, BTech graduates and final-year students will undergo practical professional PV solar training on the essential skills needed to enable them to enter the job market upon graduation. Training will hold at the new Solar Training Centres. Upon completing the training, graduates will receive a 3-week internship with a Solar Hub West Africa company.
Antje Klauss-Vorreiter, Managing Director of GREEN Solar Academy, explains, “We offer Photovoltaic training in various African countries and encounter the same difficulty in each of them: the youth unemployment rate is enormous, yet the PV industry lacks experienced employees. This pilot project in Ghana will begin to address both of these issues, and we now have a solid framework that can be successfully rolled out to other regions across the continent.”
Despite an abundance of electrical engineering graduates in Ghana, these graduates often lack the solid and practical professional capacity required by solar developers. As a result, youth unemployment remains undesirably high, at more than 30%.
240 students will be trained over the course of the two-year project, which commenced in October 2020. GREEN Solar Academy estimates that at least 50% of the students will secure permanent employment via the job placement programme. The programme also ensures that skilled graduates will connect with industry professionals and other alumni of the GREEN Solar Academy.