What we do

The African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support (ACCESS) at the University of Leipzig seeks to address the paradox of a growing and improved formal education system in Africa which does not improve access to the labour market, but rather contributes to increasing unemployment rates among university graduates. ACCESS therefore 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. A consortium of six universities from Benin, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Tunisia, led by the University of Leipzig, Germany, will undertake the project.

Prof. Dr. Utz Dornberger
„The number of African university graduates will continue to increase massively in the next few years. We must therefore work together with our colleagues in Africa to offer young talents a professional future at their own doorstep. ACCESS can make a significant structural and methodological contribution in this regard and upscale its interventions to a network of 30 universities“

ACCESS is funded 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 three continents with funds from the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). Seven German universities – including the University of Leipzig – together with their partners in developing countries, will receive a total of 30.8 million Euros by 2024.

Networking Structure

*(Hover over the elements to learn more.)

African Centre for Career Enhancement & Skills Support - ACCESS:

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. The centre is organised around four pillars

Capacity Building:

comprises a Skills Development Tool Kit to implement intrapreneurial learning processes for employability promotion at HEIs, a set of internet-based tools and digital platforms (E-Coaching) that facilitate the learning and coaching process for students and lecturers, and the Roll-Out of Capacity Development Program that allows to reach 30 HEIs in the selected partner countries.

University-Business Linkages for Development:

put emphasis on the development of organisational structures at HEIs that support the creation and management of linkages with the private sector. They include a Career Enhancement Program that achieves concrete employment opportunities through active marketing and recruiting measures.

Employability Research Program:

develops and tests new and innovative concepts for employability promotion at HEIs. It includes a PhD program and the Employability Promotion Assessment, which is an online-based Self-Assessment Tool that allows HEIs to understand their strengths and weaknesses with regard to employability promotion of their students.

African German Entrepreneurship Academy:

The already established African German Entrepreneurship Academy (www.ageacdemy.de), currently running several projects with 37 HEIs in Africa will be integrated in the centre.

Get involved

For Universities:

Get involved in the capacity development activities.

• Meet us through the kick-off Meeting 27th April 2020 in Leipzig

For Businesses:

Get involved through vibrant links to academia

• Meet us through the kick-off Meeting 27th April 2020 in Leipzig

For young Researchers:

Get involved in Employability Research.

• Call for Applications for PHD scholarships now open young researchers are invited to apply


• Download the call for applications.

For Start-Ups and Idea creators:

Get involved with the African German Entrepreneurship Academy

Vist Ageacademy