African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support (ACCESS) program launched
Launch date: 29.06.2020
Venue: Online
ACCESS is a five-year project spearheaded by Leipzig University, jointly implemented by a consortium of six African universities in IRGIB Africa University, Benin, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Ghana, Mount Kenya University, Kenya, University of Ibadan, Nigeria, INES-Ruhengeri, Rwandan and University of Tunis, Tunisia. ACCESS seeks to address the paradox of improved formal education systems in Africa and rising unemployment rates among African university graduates. Within the project framework, new interdisciplinary concepts will be developed and piloted to contribute to promoting the employability of students and graduates of African universities. With the benefit from existing collaborations between Leipzig University and its African partner universities, ACCESS seeks to create a practice-oriented interface for African Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs), development cooperation partners, business associations and agencies in the Global South.
With creation of the African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support – ACCESS, organised as a predominantly virtual network, we bundle existing cooperation projects between African partner universities and Leipzig University in order to create a practice-oriented collaboration interface for African HEIs as well as partners from development cooperation and business associations/agencies in the Global South.
MKU Project Team
The 5-year project implementation at Mount Kenya University will be supported by Dr. Bibianne Waiganjo-Aidi, DVC Academic & Research Affairs, Prof. Peter Wanderi, Principal Corporate Services, Dr. Peter G. Kirira, Ag. Principal, College of Graduate Studies & Research, Dr. Henry Yatich, Dean School of Business & Economics, Dr. Samuel Karenga, Director Graduate Studies and Mr. Afubwa Musyimi, Director Career and Alumni Affairs.
Through this project, ONE PhD candidate, Ms. Doris Alago was competitively awarded a full scholarship to study at Leipzig University from September, 2020. She will be supervised by Dr. Robert Omondi from Mount Kenya University and Prof. Rainer Alt from Leipzig University.
The African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support (ACCESS) aims to improve access to the labour market in African countries where graduate unemployment is usually very high – over 30 percent in some instances. Within the framework of ACCESS, new interdisciplinary concepts would be developed and piloted to contribute to increasing the employability of students and graduates of African universities.
ACCESS is funded to a tune of 3 million Euros by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the “Higher Education Excellence in Development Cooperation – (exceed)” programme. With “exceed”, DAAD supports the establishment of international university networks on four continents with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ).
