These events brought together academics, industry leaders, and young scholars from across Africa and Europe to address one of the continent’s most pressing challenges: bridging the gap between skills development and decent work opportunities for youth in the Global South.
ACCESS Summer School: From Ideas to Impact
The week-long Summer School programme, held from 02 – 09 November 2025, centred on the theme “Decent Work and Economic Growth: Exploring Solutions to Youth Unemployment, Skill Gaps, and SME Formalisation in the Global South.” The initiative attracted over 50 in-person participants and about 100 virtual attendees from Ghana, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tunisia, Rwanda, Kenya, and Germany.
Professor David Asamoah, Pro Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, emphasised that university education must transcend mere degree awarding. “At KNUST, we believe that university education must go beyond the awarding of degrees. It must equip learners with the competencies, mindset, and adaptability required for the world of work and indeed, for the creation of work,” he stated. His remarks underscored the urgency facing Africa, home to the world’s youngest population, where millions of graduates encounter labour markets that are often saturated, informal, or unprepared to absorb their talents.
Robert Meyer, representing Leipzig University, articulated ACCESS’s core mission: “The aim of ACCESS is to improve the employability of graduates from African universities. With this team of young people, we want to work on ideas they shared when they applied for the programme and to encourage them to put these ideas together in the form of proposals to implement as projects.”
About 30 ideas from student participants were brought into the summer school. The summer school functioned as a “living laboratory of ideas” where participants engaged in presentations, panel discussions, and interactive sessions focused on employable skills, productivity enhancement, SME formalisation, and decent work conditions, all aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goal 8. At the end of the summer school, participants departed with concrete project proposals, new partnerships, and renewed commitment to addressing youth unemployment in their respective contexts.
IN4IN Conference 2025: Strengthening University-Business Linkages
The programme culminated in the Intelligence for Innovation (IN4IN) Conference on 07 November 2025, which deepened discussions on the role of university-business linkages in creating decent work opportunities. Professor Asamoah, in his opening address, noted that rapid technological change demands new approaches to skills development. “When industry and academia co-create curricula, co-supervise research, and co-develop solutions, learning becomes not just theoretical but transformational,” he explained.
Professor Dr. Utz Dornberger, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Management Science at Leipzig University and Director of ACCESS, emphasised the transformative potential of digital tools and international engagement. He presented innovative examples, such as the Online Marketing Challenge, in which students design digital marketing campaigns for real companies abroad. Professor Dornberger explained that “through cross-border hackathons, internships, dual-degree programmes, and digital simulations, students gain practical experience that prepares them for the global job market.” He encouraged African universities to integrate artificial intelligence into teaching and adopt action research models.
Mr. Alexander Asmah, CEO of Amenfiman Rural Bank, provided private-sector perspectives, emphasising the need to build comprehensive ecosystems for student entrepreneurship. “Africa’s challenge is not a lack of talent but a lack of structure. We need to bridge the gap between academia and industry by creating partnerships with the private sector that lead to real-world solutions,” he observed. Mr. Asmah proposed a Multi-Stakeholder Skills Development Council and called for innovative financing mechanisms to support youth-led enterprises.
Deepening the KNUST-Leipzig Partnership
Parallel to the events, high-level discussions between KNUST and Leipzig University leadership resulted in commitments to significantly expand their academic partnership. This was discussed during a courtesy call by Professor Dr Utz Dornberger on the Vice Chancellor of KNUST on 04 November 2025. This partnership is going beyond the departmental or faculty level, partnering with Publishing Studies and the School of Business, and potentially expanding to a university partnership that includes Veterinary Medicine, Pharmacy, and Biosciences. The institutions are also exploring opportunities for a joint Erasmus+ grant application and considering implementing a double-degree MBA programme.
Professor Rita Akosua Dickson, Vice-Chancellor of KNUST, highlighted the university’s strategic focus on sustainability and innovation, calling for support in developing a proposed two-megawatt solar energy park and university entrepreneurship centre. “We are committed to training employers, not just employees,” she stated. The discussions also included formal recognition of Dr. Ralph Nyadu-Addo, Coordinator of ACCESS-Ghana, for his outstanding contributions to Ghana-Germany academic cooperation.
The success of the 2025 summer school and IN4IN conference demonstrates the power of sustained, partnership-based capacity-building approaches. As Professor Asamoah emphasised, “The challenge of youth unemployment and skill gaps cannot be solved by governments or universities alone. It requires a collective effort, a new social compact that brings together education, industry, and communities.” The events in Kumasi exemplified how African and European universities, industry partners, and development organisations can work together to develop the collaborative, innovative solutions that Africa urgently needs.
The ACCESS project, funded by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) under the EXCEED Initiative supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), operates across seven African universities with a comprehensive approach encompassing employability research, digital skills development, entrepreneurship training, and career support services support to bridge the gap between higher education and labour market demands in Africa.
For more information about ACCESS and its activities, please visit our website
