What we do
Why Green Workforce Development
Our aim is to build a future-fit workforce and promote green job creation in Africa.
We partner to create, implement and scale programmes that create opportunities for youth and women in the African green economy, enabling access to green skilling, enterprise development, livelihood programmes and startup incubation while shaping the green economy ecosystem through advocacy and research.
As a pan-African catalytic integrator, Jacob’s Ladder Africa applies a whole-of-system approach across supply and demand pathways, connecting skills development, market linkages, and policy interventions into one coherent engine for change.
We leverage interconnected pathways to deliver green jobs at scale.
Ecosystem Influence
We create enabling environments through policy and stakeholder engagements, strategic partnerships, program design and advocacy that drive systemic change for a green and inclusive transition.
(i) Spearheading national, continental and international policy engagements on green skills development and job creation.
(ii) Sectoral deep dive roundtables encompassing Youth in Agriculture, E-mobility, Productive Use of Energy (PUE), and Circular Economy, among others.
(iii) Multi-channel advocacy and awareness campaigns through activations, roundtables, youth debates, webinars, as well as digital and traditional media, aimed at advocating for policy, funding, and ecosystem changes that enable the growth of green jobs.
Our interventions include:
(i) Alliance for Greening Skills and Opportunities (AGSO): A pioneering coalition of actors uniting government agencies, the private sector, academia, development partners and youth organisations to advance the greening of skills and opportunities across Africa.
(ii) Green Careers Caravan (GCC): A bold, youth-centred initiative in partnership with the government and university networks to close the gap between education and the rapidly growing green job market by delivering immersive Green Career Days across universities.
(iii) Africa Climate Ambassadors Programme (ACAP), which seeks to increase the number and range of voices advocating for and participating in the climate opportunity in Africa.
Skilling And Entreprise Development
greenlabs®
Our proprietary climate entrepreneurship incubator programme, greenlabs®, provides an environment to nurture, equip and empower young Africans with the knowledge, tools, and networks to build scalable and sustainable green ventures.
The programme directly addresses the barriers that African youth and women face in accessing opportunities within the green economy by providing targeted entrepreneurial support, mentorship, and market access.
Four primary focus areas:
- Food systems
- Water Management
- Waste Management
- Productive Use of Energy
We also partner to co-create and implement programmes that adopt a systemic approach to skilling youth and women, enabling them to gain access to sustainable livelihoods in enterprise, livelihood programmes and white, blue, and grey-collar green jobs.
Sustainable Livelihood Programs
We design, co-create and implement grassroots projects that engage youth and women intrapreneurs across various green-sector value chains.
Leveraging our internal curriculum development customised to country and sector-specificity, we design and implement green skills training programmes aimed at building capacity across technical, climate and business competencies among African youth and women.
Our interventions include:
(i) Grassroots conversations to create awareness and increase climate literacy.
(ii) Online and in-person green skills training, including general and technical topics ranging from climate change awareness and green sectors such as carbon markets and regenerative agriculture
(iii) Green entrepreneurship training for MSMEs, innovators and youth groups.
(iv) Facilitating market linkages and job placements through collaborating with employers and the enterprise ecosystem, to ensure the offtake of trained youth, women and businesses.