A movement is forming across Africa, as young leaders build organizations to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time: expanding access to education and improving the quality of schooling on the world’s youngest continent. In 2019, African Leadership Academy launched the ALforEducation Accelerator to nurture these young leaders and foster excellence within their organizations. Our pilot program is an intensive leadership development program for entrepreneurs who have started high-potential schools across Africa.

Our unit of long-term change is the leader, rather than the school they are building today. We select leaders who have successfully built schools, as a testament to the kind of commitment and entrepreneurial leadership that is required for long-term success, and we employ the school entity as a vehicle for the leader’s learning and leadership development – and a springboard to a career filled with challenges of increasing scale.

Over three years, the ALforEducation Accelerator works closely with the edupreneurs to help them grow as education leaders, and by extension, help grow their education enterprises. More specifically, the Accelerator commits to providing the following:

• Support in assessing your school’s baseline performance;
• Quarterly in-person leadership development sessions;
• Small financial grants tied to your development and delivery;
• Access to expert shared services in financial management and in monitoring & evaluation;
• Professional development for your teachers through our Master Teacher Program; and
• Connections to expert advisers, mentors and sources of capital.

In exchange, cohort members commit to the following:

• Be engaged members of the cohort through regular communication with their fellow members and ALforEducation staff.
• Attend quarterly leadership development sessions designed for their growth and the growth of their organizations.
• Collaborate with ALforEducation staff in conducting baseline and follow-up assessments of their organizations.
• Provide ALforEducation staff with data that can help build an understanding of the school’s impact and development over time.

We are recruiting our next cohort of African education leaders. More specifically, we’re looking for people who meet the following criteria:

• Currently running schools or organisations that have some proven track record of impact
• Working full time on their venture
• Have a strong commitment to the betterment of education on the continent
• Have a vision for growing their schools both in reach and in quality

Recruitment for Accelerator cohort goes through our annual Edupreneur Growth Lab. If the above resonates with you and you’d like to be considered, please apply for the Growth Lab. Applications for this 6 week short-course will be announced soon.