The European Commission has co-funded with 360,000 euros GreenVETAfrica, a two-year Erasmus+ project to promote a technical vocational pathway for unemployed young people in Nigeria and Ghana in two local training centres.

The project is managed by a consortium of three European partners - AREA (Italy), Federazione CNOS-FAP (Italy) and Asociación Mundus (Spain); and four African ones - Whizzy Academy and Presbyterian Relief Services And Development (Ghana), Pan-Atlantic University Foundation and Lagos Waste Management Authority (Nigeria).

The ambition of the project is to contribute to the Green and Digital Transition (Twin Transition) in line with the ambitious environmental goals of the European Green Deal and the Europe - Africa Strategic Partnership.

This twin transition is the key to adopting a circular development model, transforming linear industrial value chains to minimise waste and pollution, make better use of the waste produced and ensure environmental standards.

This transition requires qualified specialists at all levels.

With regards to this aspect, the project intercepts the lack of technical profiles in West Africa (in Nigeria and Ghana in particular) where environmental studies and technology training are only offered at university level and there are no programmes to train technical profiles that respond to job vacancies in the environmental sector, particularly within the waste management.

GreenVETAfrica aims to strengthen the training capacities of the technical institutions that are project partners, define an innovative vocational training programme for Green Waste Management and Micro-Entrepreneurship, which will be piloted with 100 students in the two countries.

At the end of the training activity, the project will facilitate the students' entry into the labour market through contacts and encounters with companies that play an active role in the collection, processing and recycling of municipal and industrial waste.

The teaching material will then be made available online to promote the replicability of the programme in other schools and countries.

The project consortium is led by AREA, an SME from Friuli Venezia Giulia (Italy), founded by Adriano Mauro, an entrepreneur with 30 years of experience in the area of industrial research and development.

According to Samuel Aboagye, the Project Lead at Whizzy Academy, the project aligns with the organization's vision of creating job opportunities for the youth in Ghana and across Africa.

About GreenVETAfrica (GVA)

GreenVETAfrica (GVA) is the first transcontinental training and innovation programme in the field of Green Waste Management in Africa

It is an Erasmus+ project funded by the European Commission and launched in January 2023

It brings together Italian, Spanish, Nigerian and Ghanaian partners

GreenVETAfrica has the ambition to offer the first Green Waste Management Vocational Training Programme for young Nigerians and Ghanaians, through the use of innovative digital tools.