There are 1.1 billion young people between the ages of 15 and 24 in the world, with the largest numbers concentrated in Asia and Africa. Each year between 2015 and 2035, there will be half a million more 15-year-olds than the year before. Meanwhile, the population in the rest of the world is, or will soon be, aging. (World Bank, 2014) By 2060, Africa will be home to nearly 500 million youth, and Asia home to more than 615 million.

Africa has the youngest population in the world, with 70% of sub-Saharan Africa under the age of 30. If these young people are productively engaged, they have the potential to raise the incomes of their communities and stimulate economic growth in their countries (sometimes called a “demographic dividend” or the “youth bulge”). However, 71 million youth are unemployed globally, and the youth unemployment rate is nearly three times that of the adult unemployment rate.

The skills gap is a global challenge, and a lack of education is the root. In 57 of 108 countries, more than half of the workforce have jobs not matching their level of education — 72% of this skills mismatch is attributed to under-education.

The absence of well-educated and skilled leaders, which leaves the majority of young people, many in minority and marginalized groups, unemployed remains a serious challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, where young people are twice as likely to be unemployed as any other age cohort. In Nigeria, where half of the population is aged under 19 years, the vast majority of young people lack opportunities to keep pace with the changing world of work and are engaged in low-quality informal jobs with limited job security and low earnings.

By 2030 the global labor force will see an increase of 600 million to 3.5 billion, with sixty percent of this net increase taking place in South Asia and Africa. Education systems in Africa already face challenges meeting young people’s needs–current curricula and teaching methods don’t consistently prepare students for what’s to come following graduation. Despite an eagerness and commitment to learning, even students who finish secondary school often find themselves lacking the skills needed for the few available jobs, leading to unemployment and underemployment.

FAME has raised secondary education as a priority, and we are committed to creating an explicit link between secondary education and skills for employment, immersing it into state and national education systems in Nigeria. Given the fact that most youth entering the workforce will not obtain any education beyond the secondary level.

FAME Global Leadership Programme is a systemic one-year transformative programme through which we engage teachers, school administrators, and youths to equip underserved youths in public secondary schools with leadership values, and soft and entrepreneurial skills.

With over half a decade of experience operating our in-school model in Nigerian public secondary schools, we’ve tested, refined, and continually strengthened this innovative programme to ensure the maximum impact for youth.