Concordia Montreal, a leading University in Canada, has announced the launch of Concordia Africa -an initiative aimed at spurring innovation among the youth on the continent.
Speaking during the annual Conference of Montreal on June 12, Concordia President Graham Carr described the initiative as one that will enable innovative collaboration and the exchange of ideas between Africa and the university.
According to him, Concordia is looking to capitalize on the majority youthful population across Africa to make an impact on the world through innovations.
“Concordia has placed Africa at the heart of its international relations because of the endless opportunities for innovative collaborations, as well as the chance to learn from the people and institutions across the length and breadth of this dynamic continent,” the President noted.
Concordia’s Three-fold strategy
In addition, the Concordia Africa initiative will be implemented in a three-pronged approach- each with a specific set of activities.
The first one, AFRISE will focus on “supporting young African entrepreneurs and providing them with a range of dedicated activities such as mentorship and business incubation, as well as access to networks of experienced business leaders.”
Further, the initiative will feature a program named FutureWise which will seek to reduce the gap between graduation rates in learning institutions and unemployment rates in Africa.
FutureWise will, according to Concordia, be executed through cooperative education, applied research and online learning.
Lastly, Concordia Africa will feature a stream of scholarly collaboration to promote the exchange of scholars and students between Africa and Concordia and foster new research in learning institutions.
Announcing the initiative, facility asserted its optimism in the initiative citing the”promising headway” realized in the opening stages.
In early 2023, institution sponsored 30 young entrepreneurs for a mentorship program in Montreal through the AFRISE program- an achievement the institution notes would serve as the foundation of future success.
Additionally, the university announced that the FutureWise stream took off courtesy of a collaboration with various caucuses representing different universities in Africa.
“Together, they engaged with hundreds of recent African graduates, as well as employers, foundations and universities, to get a comprehensive picture of the gaps that exist between graduation and employment rates in Africa,” Concordia noted.