The Schneider Electric Foundation and Schneider Electric recently celebrated a major milestone in their commitment to empowering young people through education and entrepreneurship. The foundation’s Youth Education & Entrepreneurship Programme has trained more than 38 000 young people in Anglophone Africa and over 824 000 globally, as at the end of 2024.
The Youth Education & Entrepreneurship Programme extends to over 60 countries, collaborating with more than 400 partners around the world in empowering youth, and particularly young women, to play an active role in leading the energy transition. The programme focuses on energy technical training, new skills for the future, as well as entrepreneurship and innovation.
Since its inception in 2009, key achievements of the programme include:
- 824 404 individuals trained worldwide
- 11 140 trainers certified, exceeding the 10 000 target
- 11 295 entrepreneurs supported, surpassing the 10 000 target.
The foundation and Schneider Electric are committed to achieving the goal of training one million people in energy management by the end of 2025. This also forms part of the Schneider Sustainability Impact (SSI) transformation dashboard.
“We look forward to continuing our impact in Anglophone Africa this year by training the youth, women, and entrepreneurs with essential skills to shape the energy transition,” says Carina van Zyl, Corporate Citizenship Leader for Anglophone Africa at Schneider Electric.
Initiatives in Anglophone Africa have contributed significantly to the programme’s global impact. For example, the French Southern Africa Schneider Electric Education Centre (F’SASEC) network, established in 2012, is a vocational training initiative that has played a valuable role in building technical expertise across the region – notably at the Sedibeng TVET College, based in Sebokeng and Vereeniging in the Vaal Triangle, which trained over 1 000 students in 2024. Another initiative, the New Skills for the Future and Innovation programme, undertaken with Enactus in Nigeria, Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, is driving innovation and entrepreneurship among university and high school students. In 2024, over 15 000 youth across the region were trained in the energy transition and sustainability through this programme.
Through partnerships with training organisations, the Schneider Electric Foundation and Schneider Electric have rolled out several other training programmes in Anglophone Africa:
- With Don Bosco, training programmes in Mozambique, Malawi, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Ghana, and Nigeria
- With Sisters of Mary, in Tanzania, East Africa, programmes focused on empowering female trainees
- With Trace Academia, upskilling youth in digital and energy-related skills
- And the Ukufunda Youth Development Programme in South Africa, creating opportunities for underprivileged youth to access the economy.
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