By Simon Stumpf
Simon Stumpf of Ashoka East Africa lists the top jobs he expects to see employing young people in Africa in the next decade. We invite you to give feedback and additions in the comments section below!
60% of the best jobs in the next ten years haven’t been invented yet. At least that’s what futurologist Thomas Frey is fond of saying. This is great news because lots of good, new jobs will be needed in order for Africa to reverse staggering youth unemployment rates.
Where will these jobs come from? One source will be social entrepreneurs in Africa who are creating new opportunities as they transform their chosen fields, creating new market opportunities. Here is a list of top jobs I expect to see employing young people in Africa over the course of the next decade:
1. “Diversity Designer”
As the world becomes more interconnected and the challenges more varied, the ability to design and engage diverse teams will be critical in any sector. In Kenya, Fred Ouko founded ANDY (the Action Network for the Disabled). With help from ANDY, large employers have now found ways to include dozens of youth with disabilities in their teams and report that diverse teams are better able to adapt to changes, and create new solutions. Does your company need a Diversity Designer?
2. “University Founder”
South Africa’s first free university, CIDA City Campus, was founded in 2000 by Taddy Blecher. Since then, 6,000 alumni received a free education in exchange for managing day-to-day operations. Six other institutions founded on these principles have educated more than 600,000 young people, but demand is still skyrocketing across Africa. University Founders who can provide a world-class, entrepreneurial, and FREE education will be in huge demand!
3. “Wellness Coach”
Paige Elenson of Kenya started the Africa Yoga Project in 2006. Today you can book a private yoga lesson online with one of more than 70 trained instructors or join more than 300 weekly yoga classes in Nairobi. Someday, when AYP expands across the continent and its alumni launch new companies in the global wellness and health tourism market (already worth an estimated $3B annually), you’ll be able to hire a Wellness Coach to help you navigate all the options!
4. “Invisible Executive”
Across West Africa, independent, autonomous and entrepreneurial workers at Karim Sy’s network of JokkoLabs are turning traditional employment on its head. At these collaborative spaces, “invisible executives” build teams around emerging opportunities. Have a 21st Century challenge? Surf over to one of the 6 JokkoLabs where more than 3,000 coworkers are already solving 21st Century problems!
5. “Ecosystem Advocate”
For too long human economic activities have not properly accounted for nature’s abundant contributions. In Benin, Salim Dara launched Solidarité Rurale to build a network of demonstration farms where students experience the interconnectedness of nature and the importance of balanced, sustainable ecosystems. In the future, graduates could be employed as Ecosystem Advocates protecting cities’ watersheds or vulnerable landscapes.
6. “Alien Experience Advisor”
Where will we find employees with enough global empathy to navigate workdays where video chatting with someone on the other side of the world is as normal as selling a product to a customer whose culture they barely understand? Start by recruiting talent from Nafisika Trust which was founded by Vickie Wambura in 2006. Nafiskia works to transform Kenya’s prisons into thriving centers of rehabilitation and enlightenment. Last year alone Nafiskia’s hyper-empathetic volunteers gave more than 11,000 hours of pro bono support to 4,500 prisoners. These volunteers and the former convicts might be your future employees!
7. “Nutrient Banker”
Tools for measuring nutrients in soil , food, our bodies, and as they affect our overall health are increasingly sophisticated and accessible to average consumers. Soon, home gardeners and smallholder farmers can buy Soil IQ, a wireless soil sensor that helps farmers grow healthier food by turning a reading of soil parameters into instant agricultural advice. With better tools we can expect to see new professionals creating, maintaining, and supplying a full spectrum of nutrition in landscapes as soil health experts, nutrient trackers, and even Nutrient Bankers.
8. “Smallholder Super Farmer”
In the future, small is big business. There are more than 33 million family farmers in Africa, most still produce at subsistence levels. But now, M-Farm is doing for smallholder farmers in Africa what eBay did for the odd collector or reseller. With more reliable outlets for products and a steady income, these Smallholder Super Farmers may seek Farm Innovation Managers to keep up with trends and create new opportunities. Where will they find them? In South Africa, more than 350 young people have gone through Future Farmers’ 2-3 year training program, 70% are already employed!
9. “Climate Change Adaptability Agent”
In Zimbabwe, Verengai Mabika’s Development Reality Institute has conducted online courses for 800 students from 28 countries focused on the earth’s changing climate system and the environmental, economic, and political implications. Hundreds of primary school children in Zimbabwe also regularly participate in “Cool Clubs”. Verengai’s ultimate goal is to build society’s adaptive capacity by preparing young people to tackle 21st century challenges. Future employers will thank him!
10. “Rat Trainer”
Bart Weetjens was frustrated that the world’s best ideas for demining post-conflict areas or detecting TB involved expensive, often-imported technologies, especially when a hardy African rodent had all the tools for the job: an incredibly strong sense of smell and an eagerness to be trained! Today through APOPO, rat trainers in Angola, Cambodia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Thailand have demined more than 62,000 acres (25,000 hectares) and TB-sniffing rats in Tanzania have screened more than 240,000 sputum samples and detected 5,087 previously misdiagnosed cases. Given the many applications of this “technology” – from shipping ports to airport security – there will be increasing demand for rat trainers!
Some of these careers are still a bit ahead of their time, in the meantime, you can prepare for future professions by cultivating a changemaker mindset through hands-on experience. The hot jobs of the future will go to empathetic, creative, initiators and action-takers who dare to think big, and work well with others to change the world.
Something to add? We invite you to give feedback and additions in the comments section below!
Simon Stumpf is the regional director for Ashoka in East Africa. When he’s not struggling with yoga or playing with baby rats, he helps Ashoka build a global network of leading social entrepreneurs and young changemakers.
This post was written for the Future Forward partnership between Ashoka and The MasterCard Foundation, aiming to identify and support innovative problem solvers to youth employment challenges in sub-Saharan Africa and convene conversations about solutions that can move #AfricaYouthFwd. The organizations will be hosting two webinars this summer.
Photo Credit: ramnath bhat via Compfight cc
