On Monday, 7 September, The Career Café Africa and AG Expert Consult will host a Future of Work Knowledge-to-Action Forum and Masterclass at the Kigali Convention Centre, aiming to move a continent-wide conversation from diagnosis to practical steps.
The half-day session built on two high-level convenings the Career Café held earlier this year in Nairobi and Kigali, where officials, private-sector leaders and development partners examined a widening gap between Africa’s education systems and its labour market needs.
Africa’s working-age population is projected to reach 1.1 billion by 2034 and top two billion by 2063, and by 2050 nearly four in ten workers globally are expected to be African, a shift organisers say the continent is not yet prepared to absorb.
For participants, the day will be centred on practical sessions: identifying personal and market value, communicating with influence, building career networks, and using digital tools and AI to stand out. The target audience included early- and mid-career professionals, entrepreneurs, graduate trainees and people navigating career transitions.
Career Café Africa founder Dr Luchuo Engelbert Bain said the session marks a deliberate shift in approach. “Monday marks a deliberate transition from reflection to action. Building on our convenings in Nairobi and Kigali, we are moving past discussing disruptions like AI and changing skills to actively setting up solutions,” he said. He added that the partnership with AG Expert Consult was chosen to keep the initiative grounded in market realities rather than confined to policy discussion.
Samuel Iyokwizerwa, founder and Executive Director of AG Expert Consult, said the partnership was designed to connect policy-level discussion with practical execution. “Africa’s labor market is shifting fast under AI and green transitions, and this forum, co-hosted with The Career Café Africa at the Kigali Convention Centre moves the conversation from passive talk to real-world action,” he said.
He added that attendees should leave with more than new skills: “a personal action plan, direct connections to industry leaders, and access to our enterprise advisory pipeline.”
The Career Café’s Executive Brief on the initiative describes Africa’s workforce planning as largely reactive and calls for a dedicated, Africa-led institution to turn research into coordinated action. Dr Bain said periodic summits cannot keep pace with how quickly the region’s economy is changing. “Africa needs a full-time mechanism driving this agenda year-round,” he said, describing the proposed Future of Work Think Tank as a dedicated team translating labour market data into policy and investment.
Organisers plan further sessions across West, Central, Southern and North Africa, building toward a continental Future of Work Summit in November 2026, where founding partners are expected to unveil the initiative’s first pilot projects. Organisers describe Monday’s forum as a starting point rather than a conclusion.
