The fast-growing population of Africa and notably Eastern Africa raises – among many others - the challenge of employment and especially the employability and visibility of skills in young graduates. A recent trend has been observed within higher education and employability that actual skills and competencies are more valued by employers than the traditional approaches that used to put a single emphasis on the obtained degree and the pertaining institution. In line with said trend, the EPICA project aimed at addressing the above-mentioned challenge of the employability and visibility of skills of young Africans by developing an eportfolio allowing graduates to increase their skills visibility and consequently their employability.
It has been theorized that African economies will be able to skip some industrial developments by directly adopting the latest technologies; for example, the lack of needing to build landlines when cell phones and data roaming can be set up directly. In line with this example, education and specifically online education is developing fast in Africa as more and more Africans are gaining access to the internet and consequently, to education. It must also be observed that in Africa - as is worldwide – lifelong learning is developing rapidly; people of all ages are now either going back to studies or combining work together with education.
Based on all these above detailed evolutions and trends, the EPICA eportfolio has been a response in order to bridge graduates and employers, universities and companies, by allowing graduates/students of all ages to not only better highlight their resume but also to highlight their skills and competencies to potential employers. EPICA was both a commercial and Research & Development project that explored the responsivity of the African market by piloting the eportfolio in three different universities within three countries (Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania). In parallel, the legal requirements, the business model, the sustainability, and the relevant technology were cumulatively researched and studied by the EPICA consortium. The overall objective of the EPICA project was therefore to explore the marketability and set the conditions for the EPICA eportfolio to be adopted by the African market. Despite the Coronavirus pandemic and its belated restrictions that severely reduced the scope of the pilot and delayed the potential exploitation of the project results, the EPICA project has positively addressed its objectives and reaffirmed the assumptions upon which the project was developed.
