Five Years of Impact Axis: What We’ve Learned About Preparing Young People for Opportunity

Every year, thousands of young Cameroonians graduate from universities and professional institutions with qualifications, ambitions, and expectations of building meaningful careers. For many, however, the transition from education into employment is far more difficult than anticipated. Despite years of formal education, they enter a labour market where opportunities are limited, competition is intense, and academic qualifications alone are rarely sufficient to secure meaningful work.

The challenge extends beyond Cameroon. According to the African Development Bank, between 10 and 12 million young people enter Africa's workforce annually, while only around 3 million formal jobs are created. In Cameroon, where 86.6% of employment is concentrated in the informal sector and just 5.1% in the formal private sector, the pathways into stable and dignified work remain particularly constrained.

While these figures reveal the scale of the employment challenge, they also raise important questions about how young people are prepared for the world beyond education. What happens when someone has the academic qualifications but lacks the practical experience, professional relationships, or information needed to navigate employment opportunities? And how can youth development organisations help address these gaps without losing sight of the broader structural challenges affecting job creation?

These were some of the questions that led to the founding of Impact Axis in 2021. What began as a small research project eventually became the Goodwill Fellowship, a youth development programme that has evolved considerably over the past five years.

Our journey has involved periods of experimentation, difficult decisions, setbacks, and opportunities to rethink our approach. As we reflect on the last five years, several lessons stand out, particularly for organisations working to improve young people's transition from education into meaningful work.

1. Understanding the problem should come before designing the programme

The origins of Impact Axis can be traced to a research project undertaken by our founder, Clement Ngosong, during his second year at Ashesi University in Ghana.

In 2021, as part of a university research course, Clement set out to understand what young Cameroonians believed they needed to thrive in their personal and professional lives. The research was motivated by a growing concern about the disconnect between formal education and the practical demands young people encounter when entering the world of work.

The responses revealed recurring gaps in communication, problem-solving, collaboration, professional networking, and the ability to identify and pursue opportunities. Although many respondents had received years of formal education, they had limited opportunities to develop and practise some of the competencies that employers increasingly value.

These findings offered an important starting point for thinking about youth employability. Academic knowledge remains essential, but young people also need opportunities to develop the confidence, relationships, and practical capabilities required to apply that knowledge in unfamiliar environments.

Later that year, with support from Global Changemakers and the Melton Foundation, the research informed the development and launch of the Goodwill Fellowship. The pilot brought together 16 young Cameroonians for an experiential learning programme focused on leadership, communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and personal development.

The programme was built around a hypothesis that continues to inform our work: young people are better positioned to pursue meaningful opportunities when they have the chance to develop practical skills, apply what they learn, and build relationships with people who can support their growth.

Looking back, one of the most valuable aspects of this early experience was beginning with young people's perspectives rather than a predetermined programme model. Their responses helped us identify gaps that might otherwise have been overlooked and gave us a clearer understanding of the support they considered most relevant.

This experience continues to shape how we approach programme development. Young people are often well placed to explain the barriers they encounter, and involving them early can help organisations design interventions that respond more closely to their realities.

2. Growth is only meaningful when the quality of the experience can be sustained

The first Goodwill Fellowship cohort gave us encouraging reasons to continue. Working with a relatively small group allowed us to create an engaging learning environment where participants received personalised attention, interacted closely with facilitators, and developed relationships with their peers.

Following the pilot, we were eager to extend the experience to more young people. Clement committed some of his personal savings to support the next cohort, and the number of fellows was doubled from 16 to 32.

At the time, expanding the programme appeared to be the natural next step. We had tested the concept, received encouraging feedback, and wanted more young people to benefit from the experience. However, the decision also exposed limitations in our operational capacity.

The Fellowship relied heavily on close engagement with participants. Beyond delivering workshops, the team was responsible for coordinating activities, supporting fellows, facilitating mentoring relationships, reviewing assignments, and responding to individual learning needs. Increasing the cohort size without sufficiently expanding the systems and resources supporting delivery placed significant pressure on an already lean team.

We began to recognise that some of the features participants valued most were also the most resource-intensive. Personalised feedback, meaningful relationships, and sustained engagement require time and attention, making them difficult to maintain when growth is pursued without adequate preparation.

The experience changed how we thought about scale. Reaching more people remains important, particularly given the size of the youth employment challenge, but increasing participation cannot be the only measure of progress. The quality of learning and the support participants receive must remain central to decisions about expansion.

It also highlighted the importance of investing in organisational systems alongside programme delivery. Stronger processes, better coordination, capable facilitators, and sustainable financing are necessary if a programme is to serve more participants without compromising the experience that makes it valuable.

For a young organisation with limited resources, this was an important lesson to learn early. Growth needed to follow our capacity to deliver meaningful experiences, rather than our ambition to reach as many people as possible.

3. Taking time to listen can be as valuable as launching something new

By 2023, we had reached a point where continuing to expand the Fellowship without reviewing our approach would have been difficult to justify. Although our early experiences had demonstrated the relevance of the programme, we still had important questions about its longer-term value and how it could be improved.

We therefore decided to pause the programme and dedicate time to learning from previous cohorts.

With support from the Kofi Annan Foundation, we organised an alumni retreat in Limbe, Cameroon, bringing together former fellows to reflect on their experiences, share how they had applied what they learned, and identify areas where the programme could better support future participants.

The retreat created space for conversations that are often difficult to capture through routine feedback surveys. We wanted to understand which parts of the Fellowship had remained useful beyond the training sessions, how participants were navigating opportunities after graduating, and what additional support might have made their transition into professional life easier.

It also encouraged us to examine how we assessed programme effectiveness. During a workshop, it is relatively straightforward to measure attendance, participation, and immediate satisfaction. Understanding whether someone continues to apply a skill months later, develops greater confidence, or accesses an opportunity as a result of their experience requires a different kind of engagement.

These conversations reinforced the importance of maintaining relationships with participants beyond the formal programme period. They also helped us recognise that our alumni could play a much more active role in shaping and delivering future cohorts.

The decision to pause was particularly valuable because it allowed us to question assumptions that might otherwise have become embedded in the programme. Rather than treating the Fellowship as a fixed model, we began to see it as something that needed to evolve in response to participants' experiences and changing needs.

In a sector where organisations are frequently encouraged to demonstrate continuous growth, taking time to review and refine existing work can be difficult. Our experience showed that reflection is an important part of building programmes that remain relevant and effective over time.

4. Alumni can play a much greater role in sustaining programme impact

One of the most important insights from the 2023 retreat was the potential of our alumni community.

When we first launched the Fellowship, most of our attention was directed toward the experience participants received during the programme. We focused on designing engaging sessions, providing mentorship, and ensuring fellows developed useful skills before graduating.

Over time, however, we began to see how former participants could contribute to the experiences of those who came after them.

Some alumni returned to facilitate workshops or share their professional experiences. Others helped connect young people to opportunities, offered informal mentorship, or introduced fellows to networks they had developed after completing the programme.

These contributions have been particularly valuable because they come from people who understand the challenges participants face. An alumnus who has successfully navigated a competitive scholarship application, for example, can offer practical guidance drawn from personal experience. Someone who has recently entered the workforce can provide a more immediate perspective on recruitment, workplace expectations, and early career decisions.

For current fellows, these relationships also make professional opportunities feel more accessible. Seeing someone with a similar background make progress in their career can help young people better understand the steps involved and imagine possibilities they may previously have considered out of reach.

This has encouraged us to think more intentionally about the role of alumni in our programmes. Rather than viewing graduation as the end of a participant's journey with Impact Axis, we increasingly see it as an opportunity to build a different kind of relationship.

There is still considerable work to be done in developing a more structured alumni engagement model. Maintaining an active community requires coordination, opportunities for continued involvement, and clear ways for former participants to contribute according to their interests and availability.

Nevertheless, our experience suggests that alumni networks can become an important source of mentorship, knowledge, professional connections, and continuity. As these relationships deepen, each cohort has the potential to strengthen the experiences available to the next.

5. The real measure of success is what happens after the programme

When we resumed the Goodwill Fellowship in 2024, with continued support from the Kofi Annan Foundation, we returned with a stronger programme model and a clearer sense of what we wanted participants to gain from the experience.

The Fellowship now runs for four months, combining practical learning, mentorship, applied projects, peer collaboration, and opportunities to build professional networks. Its curriculum reflects our belief that competencies such as communication, critical thinking, leadership, and problem-solving develop most effectively when young people have opportunities to practise them in meaningful contexts.

In 2025, with support from Global Youth Mobilization, we also experimented with delivering multiple fellowship cohorts within a year. This allowed us to explore how the programme could reach more young people while continuing to improve the quality of delivery.

Alongside the Fellowship, our work has expanded to include experiential Skills & Employability workshops and The Hive, a series of curated gatherings designed to help young people exchange ideas, build relationships, and access networks that can support their personal and professional growth.

Across these initiatives, our approach is guided by three interconnected ideas: Learn, Apply, Connect.

We want young people to acquire relevant knowledge and skills, practise them through meaningful experiences, and build relationships that expand their access to information, support, and opportunities. Each element reinforces the others, particularly in contexts where professional advancement is often influenced by both individual capabilities and access to networks.

As our programmes have evolved, so has our understanding of how to measure their effectiveness.

Participation numbers remain useful for understanding reach, but they provide only a partial picture. We are increasingly interested in what young people are able to do differently after completing our programmes and whether those changes contribute to better outcomes in their lives.

Since 2021, Impact Axis has reached more than 450 young people through its programmes and activities. Our programme data indicates a 65% improvement in employability skills, while 55% of participants have accessed meaningful opportunities within six months. Collectively, participants have secured scholarships, grants, fellowships, and other opportunities valued at more than $1.5 million.

These results offer encouraging evidence of progress, although we recognise that participant outcomes are influenced by many factors beyond our programmes. Young people bring their own abilities, determination, experiences, and aspirations, while economic conditions and access to opportunities also shape what becomes possible.

Our responsibility is to contribute to an environment in which more young people have the preparation, support, and connections they need to pursue opportunities successfully.

This is also why strengthening our monitoring, evaluation, and learning systems has become an organisational priority. We want to better understand what changes for participants over time, which aspects of our programmes contribute most meaningfully to those changes, and how we can use that evidence to improve future experiences.

Rethinking the transition from education to meaningful work

Five years of working with young Cameroonians have gradually broadened our understanding of the challenges they face.

When Impact Axis began, our primary focus was on equipping young people with durable skills that could help them succeed in their personal and professional lives. Communication, leadership, collaboration, and problem-solving remain important elements of our work, particularly as technological and economic changes continue to reshape the capabilities valued in the workplace.

However, our experiences have shown that skills development alone is insufficient to address the barriers many young people face.

A capable graduate may struggle to find employment because they have limited access to professional networks or information about available opportunities. Another may possess valuable technical skills but lack the practical experience employers expect. For young people living outside major economic centres, geographical barriers can further restrict access to mentorship, internships, and employment opportunities.

These challenges are compounded by broader labour market conditions, including the limited availability of formal jobs and the difficulties many young people encounter when attempting to establish sustainable livelihoods.

Addressing this reality requires a more connected approach to youth development, one that brings together skills acquisition, practical experience, career guidance, mentorship, professional networks, and access to economic opportunities.

It also requires closer collaboration between educational institutions, employers, youth-serving organisations, foundations, and the young people these institutions seek to support.

For Impact Axis, this understanding has informed an important evolution in our organisational direction. We are increasingly focused on building the bridge from education to meaningful work, helping young people navigate the often uncertain period between completing their education and accessing opportunities that allow them to earn, contribute, and grow.

Our programmes are one part of that effort, but meaningful progress will depend on the strength of the wider ecosystem and the partnerships we can build within it.

Looking ahead

Reflecting on our journey since 2021, many of the most important lessons have come from experiences that initially challenged our assumptions. Expanding the Fellowship too quickly revealed the importance of sustainable programme delivery. Pausing in 2023 allowed us to listen more closely to alumni and rethink our approach. Our continued engagement with fellows has also helped us appreciate the importance of community, relationships, and long-term support in shaping young people's pathways to opportunity.

If we were starting again today, we would invest earlier in stronger organisational systems, involve alumni more intentionally, establish clearer approaches to measuring outcomes, and build more direct connections between learning experiences and professional opportunities.

These lessons continue to inform how we think about the future of Impact Axis.

Over the coming years, our ambition is to strengthen the Goodwill Fellowship, expand access to relevant learning experiences, deepen partnerships with employers and other institutions, and create more opportunities for young people to connect what they learn with meaningful work.

We are also aware of the limits of what any single organisation can achieve. Cameroon's youth employment challenge is shaped by economic, educational, and institutional factors that require sustained investment and coordinated responses across multiple sectors.

Nevertheless, our experience over the past five years has reinforced our conviction that targeted support during the transition from education into work can make a meaningful difference in young people's lives.

There are many talented and ambitious young Cameroonians who are ready to contribute but lack access to the relationships, experiences, and opportunities that would allow them to move forward.

Our work is to help close that gap, while continuing to learn from the young people and communities we serve.

As we enter our next chapter, we remain committed to creating pathways through which more young people can move from education into meaningful and dignified work.

Impact Axis Foundation is a workforce development organisation working to help young Cameroonians transition from education into meaningful and dignified opportunities through experiential learning, mentorship, and access to professional networks.

Learn more about our programmes and explore opportunities to partner with us at www.impact-axis.org.