On the occasion of International Women’s Day, the Open Africa Power program, which aims to empower women and youth to lead Africa’s transition to clean energy, and Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL) are pleased to announce the opening of the application process for the 2023 edition. Since 2018, Open Africa Power has equipped a group of young energy experts with the full set of technical, governmental, and commercial know-how required to launch a sustainable energy future for all of Africa. This year, the program will involve up to 150 African students—at least 50% of whom will be women—and close to 400 Alumni in a variety of leadership and professional development activities offered in collaboration with major African and Italian academic institutions.
Program details:
- Digital African Module: State of the Art and Capstone Project (May – June)
- Regulation for SDG7 Online Course (May – October)
- Italian Module: New Frontiers (January – March 2024)
- Give back module. Upon completion of the Italian module, The entire cohort of alumni will be involved in knowledge sharing activities in cooperation with Enel Foundation.
Eligibility:
The Open Africa Power selection process is an open, merit-based, competition. The application period opens on March 8th, 2023 and closes on April 10th, 2023.
To be eligible, candidates must meet the following criteria:
- Be between the ages of 24 and 35 by May 1st, 2023;
- Be a citizen of an African country;
- Currently resident in an African country or planning to relocate in Africa within the end of 2024;
- Be eligible to travel to Italy. All candidates are invited to check well in advance the procedure applicable to their specific case;
- Having graduated by May 1st, 2023 from a PhD, MSc, LLM, MPP or MBA degree. Undergraduate students, people with only a BSc degree or people who are currently enrolled in a master’s degree (i.e. Graduate students) are not eligible for this program. At least one degree (PhD, MSc, BSc, LLM, MPP or MBA) must be from an African University;
- Have competences and a demonstrated interest to pursue a career – in private or public sector – in the electricity space at large;
- Be fully proficient in English (CEFR C1 level), and be able to demonstrate this via an official language certificate or completion of at least one degree completely taught in English;
- Willingness to promote gender equality and women´s empowerment within and beyond the programme.
Recognizing that women play a critical role in the energy sector, but they are often left out of decision-making and have restricted access to energy education, employment opportunities and finance, their participation in the OAP is highly encouraged. Enel Foundation and SEforALL will ensure that 50% of the participants are women.
Application:
Applicants must provide:
- A copy of their CV (in PDF format);
- Copy of their Bachelor’s and Master’s degree certificates (plus eventual MBA/PhD certificates) AND academic transcripts (in PDF format);
- A copy of their Passport (in PDF format);
- A motivation letter (max 700 words, in PDF format);
- Three reference letters from industry, academia and/or civil servant representatives (in PDF format).
The application process begins with a registration form that allows applicants to sign up by entering their contact details. They will then receive a confirmation email redirecting them to the actual application form, which is divided into stages. At any given stage, if the required document is not uploaded, the system will prevent the applicant from advancing to the next stage. To successfully complete the process, all the documents listed in the bullet points above are required. Applications can be saved and resumed at a later stage. However, once an application is submitted, it cannot be amended. Therefore, please make sure your submission meets the requirements.
Interested candidates acknowledge that by submitting their application they will share personal data and authorize the treatment of personal data only for the scope of this program. Without such authorization, the application will not be submitted.
