Title of Innovation: Karatou Post Bac

Year of implementation: 2016

Implemented by: ILAN Tech & Services

Country/Countries where the Innovation is being implemented: Niger

Problem being solved

In Africa in general, in Niger in particular, thousands of young people are failing because of a lack of knowledge of the sectors in which they have been steered by default. Some go from sector to sector before giving up. Karatou Post bac addresses the following problems:

• Accessibility problem and lack of information on post-graduation opportunities,
• Lack of role models in the close circle of some young people,
• Training choices that are not at the same time as the job market,
• Difficulties for graduates outside the capital to enrol (decentralisation),
• Ignorance of the realities of the outside world.

Description of innovation

Enabling young Africans to take charge of their future is the mission of the Karatou Post bac mobile application. It can be downloaded from the Google Play Store and App Store. Once installed, students can take advantage of these features:

• Choose my course: Allows young people to know the courses, opportunities and have testimonials from young people who have studied in the sector.
• Registration procedures: presents the education system, the registration procedures, the cost of living in different countries
• Examples of journeys: inspiring young people and allowing them to project and break down certain barriers of self-censorship through examples of inspiring journeys.
• Interactive forum: a place of exchange where young people ask questions, learn about education and housing,
• Registrations in establishments (In Niger, Morocco, Tunisia, France...) directly from the application. Our ambition is to
• Help in finding housing
• First-time arrival set-up service in different countries
• Personalised profile orientation coaching (future functionality)
• Scholarship offers.

We organize orientation workshops in high schools and introduce the application as a complementary tool. Our proposal is unique in Niger, we continue to develop innovative services locally.

Outcomes and Impact

The Karatou Post Bac app is used by no more than 3,800 high school students and students in Africa. More than 86% of users are located in Niger. In 2018, we have accompanied more than 1500 young graduates in their post-graduate orientation, 17 students have benefited from our help in finding housing in France, Morocco and Senegal. Today, changes the daily life of Nigerians in their post-bac approach. Indeed, in the more than 200 reviews we received, our users (students and teachers) testify that Karartou Post bac allowed them to focus on their studies, they were inspired by the examples of courses.

Potential to be scaled and replicated

In all societies, education is essential. Every year millions of young people face challenges that Karatou Post Bac brings solutions to. It is available for download in all countries around the world. Today, it is in French. It could be translated for scaling in English-speaking countries, we need resources to do that. In addition, we need support to finance communication campaigns in different countries and to enable young people from other countries to benefit from the most from our application.