SASSCAL hosted an information session within Youth for Green Hydrogen(Y4H2) framework at the National Youth Week 2022 on Friday, 29 April 2022. The event organised by the National Youth Council of Namibia (NYC) was held at the Waterfront Auditorium in Lüderitz, under the theme ‘promoting Youth Agripreneurship: An Avenue for Self-employment and Work-Readiness’.

During the Youth for Green Hydrogen (Y4H2) scholarship information session Mr Kevin Stephanus, SASSCAL’s Senior Professional Officer responsible for Human Capacity Development, sensitised the youth about the green hydrogen scholarship programme, responded to open questions and further encouraged the dissemination of the call to interested candidates in the region through the regional and local structures of National Youth Council of Namibia.

SASSCAL recently partnered with the National Youth Council of Namibia to ensure that young people across Namibia seize the opportunities presented by the green hydrogen programme in Namibia. During his speech at the event, Mr. Stephanus stated, “we are excited to form a partnership with the National Youth Council in rolling out this scholarship programme to support our green hydrogen ambitions. Who else is better positioned in their footprint among young people across Namibia?”

The Namibian Government has established key partnerships globally to promote the development of green hydrogen industries, one of which is with the German Government. On 25 August 2021, in Berlin, the Namibian and German governments signed a Joint Communique of Intent which availed a grant funding towards the development of the Green Hydrogen industry in Namibia. One of the key priority areas of this Agreement was “Capacity Building”, where €5 million was allocated for Scholarships for the Namibian youths.

Hence, the Youth for Green Hydrogen (Y4H2) – Namibia  Scholarship Programme, in collaboration with the German Government, has been established. The scholarship is fully funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and spans over 5 years. The Southern African Science Service Centre for Climate Change and Adaptive Land Management (SASSCAL) has been appointed as the implementing partner for the Y4H2 programme.

As a first move towards building a Green Hydrogen ready workforce, the scholarship has been designed to target two groups in the main. The first group are unemployed Namibian graduates and the second are those interested in pursuing vocational education and training in Renewable Energy and Green Hydrogen.

In the initial phase, the Y4H2 programme-Namibia will give scholarships to Namibia Youth in the following two categories:

1. MSc/MA degree in Renewable Energy & Green Hydrogen (or other fields supporting this area)
2. Technical Vocational Education and Training – TVET Certificates (1 Yr) & Diploma (2 Yrs) in Renewable Energy & Green Hydrogen (or other fields supporting this area)

The capacity building programme supports, promotes, and advances the creation of knowledge and innovation through postgraduate and TVET training in renewable energy and green hydrogen This scholarship will thus be used to upskill unemployed graduates and ensure that the Namibian youth is trained and ready to contribute to the Green Hydrogen economy workforce and help mitigate the problem of high youth unemployment in Namibia.

A call for scholarship applications for Namibian youths was published on the SASSCAL website (https://jcoinamger.sasscal.org)  on 11 March 2022 and will close on 30 May 2022.