African Utility Week to gather 7000+ power professionals in Cape Town
“Youth unemployment on the continent is a major epidemic and internship opportunities are an amazing solution to help maximize human capital development on the continent” says Daniel Antwi, co-founder of the Africa Internship Academy (AIA) that will launch its Young Energy and Power Professionals (YEPP) at this year’s African Utility Week in Cape Town in May.

Says Daniel: “quite a number of employers have argued that skills constraint has been a major contributing factor to youth unemployment. Again, many young graduates find it very difficult to move out and become job makers in the market. Therefore, Africa Internship Academy stands to facilitate successful transition from academia to industry by ensuring that the skills of youth are honed early enough to match the labour market demands.”

Africa Internship Academy has already begun its monthly gatherings in Ghana and is looking to roll out more offices in many African cities by end of the first half of 2017. “So far, all our fellows have secured amazing internship opportunities from great organisations in Africa,” Daniel states, “and Ecobank Ghana requested to have all fellows in Ghana to intern with them, if possible.”

He adds: “also, together with the organisers of African Utility Week, we will be launching the Young Energy and Power Professionals Network (YEPP) which will be a network of ambitious graduates who wish to contribute to solving African’s power and energy issues.”

Young people in the utility sector
YEPP will bring together graduates who want to learn from each other, access thought leadership, conduct research to broaden their understanding of power and energy issues, raise funding for future solutions and further their career ambitions. “There is a lot of room for young people in the utility sector as long as they get the right skills to navigate” says AIA’s Daniel.

According to Daniel, internships are a win-win for all involved: “when HR is able to recognise potential early enough and eventually bring them on board, the recruitment process is easier and the intern would definitely feel valuable. The long-term benefits are more for the employer because staff who are former interns at a company are most likely to stay on with that employer hence building the reputation on the organization as ‘Employer of Choice’.”

He also quotes Stuart Lander of Internships.com who says that “you have a 7 in 10 chance of being hired by the company you interned with.”

At African Utility week, 30 top power and energy students/graduates across Africa will have the opportunity to be invited to the event, have complimentary access to the strategic conference and will be invited to a networking function co-hosted with Africa Internship Academy. A selection of recruiters, VIP guests and sponsoring companies will also be invited to this function.

Leading energy platform on the continent
The 17th annual African Utility Week is the leading conference and trade exhibition for African power, energy and water professionals and takes place from 16-18 May 2017 at the CTICC in Cape Town. The event will gather over 7000 decision makers from more than 40 countries to source the latest solutions and meet over 300 suppliers. Along with multiple side events and numerous networking functions the event also boasts a seven track conference with over 300 expert speakers.

The conference programme will once again address the latest challenges, developments and opportunities in the power and water sectors: ranging from generation, T&D, metering, technology and water.

KPMG is diamond sponsor
Already leading global advisory firm KPMG has confirmed that it is returning to African Utility Week, this time as its exclusive diamond sponsorship. Other long-running supporters and industry stalwarts EPG and Landis+Gyr are also back as platinum sponsors while Conlog, Poweroad, Vodacom and Sensus are gold sponsors again.

Energy Revolution Africa, a new platform for community scale projects, will provide a unique forum for solution providers to meet with the new energy purchasers such as metros and municipalities, IPPs, rural electrification project developers and large power users, including mines, commercial property developers and industrial manufacturers. The latest innovations and projects in the sectors of renewables, future technology, energy efficiency, micro/off-grid and energy storage will be showcased.

African Utility Week and Energy Revolution Africa are organised by Spintelligent, leading Cape Town-based trade exhibition and conference organiser, and the African office of Clarion Events Ltd, based in the UK. Other flagship events in Spintelligent’s power portfolio are East African Power Industry Convention (EAPIC), West African Power Industry Convention (WAPIC), iPAD Rwanda Power & Mining Investment Forum and iPAD Cameroon Energy & Infrastructure Forum.