Amidst global layoffs and rising unemployment, Flutterwave has hired 85% of its 200 graduate trainees as full-time employees after a 12-month-long paid traineeship. A year after Flutterwave launched its Graduate Trainee Program, the African fintech unicorn has hired about 85% of the 200 graduate trainees that participated in the inaugural cohort of the program.
"We are excited that our aim of giving 200 extremely bright young graduates opportunities to learn on the job and kick start their careers in tech early in life has finally been accomplished," says Mansi Babyloni, Flutterwave’s Global Chief People Officer. "As 170 of them transition from GTs to full-time employees after completing 12 months of on-the-job training and shadowing, there are myriad opportunities available for them to explore."
Launched in August 2022, the Flutterwave Graduate Trainee Program is a 12-month-long paid traineeship for newly graduated youth with little to no work experience but with big aspirations. The program was designed to build a network of young talent and equip them with technical and soft skills and practical experiences by working at a global organization with over 750 employees worldwide. Over 170 graduate trainees have shaken off their graduate trainee titles and will kick start their careers as analysts and engineer 1s in alignment with Flutterwave’s newly designed and launched career progression framework, which shows a clear pathway of growth from analyst to executive vice president. "Today they’re analysts and engineers; tomorrow they could be VPs and CTOs," Babyloni added. "There’s a clear difference in my growth from when I joined to now. I have a better understanding of my career path and have acquired marketable skills that I am proud of.
More organizations like Flutterwave should give young people a chance through initiatives like this," Chijioke Okorji, a graduate trainee who is now a developer experience engineer 1 at Flutterwave, said. "We thank the People Team and all the Graduate Trainee Managers who helped coach, mentor, and train our GTs to propel their growth into Analysts and Engineer 1s," says Bode Abifarin, chief operating officer at Flutterwave. "This is in line with our mission to create endless possibilities for all; truly, their careers have taken off, and there's no limit to what they can achieve going forward." So far this year, more than 234,976 employees have been laid off by about 1009 tech companies, including African-based startups like Cellulant and Copia.
This has increased the unemployment rate on the continent and across the world. Amidst these tough times, initiatives like Flutterwave's are bridging the unemployment gap. Recently, Nigerian edtech startup uLesson also launched a Graduate Trainee Program, which will run for three months. The startup has since selected trainees for its first cohort. Interswitch also launched a similar program late last year.
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