EV firms partner with universities to plug skills gap

From the newsletter 

Electric motorcycle company Spiro has signed an MoU with Rwanda-based Mount Kigali University (MKU) to advance training, research and innovation in electric mobility. The collaboration will also see the installation of a battery-swap station at MKU, providing students and researchers with hands-on experience in EV adoption and sustainable transport solutions. 

• There is a notable skills gap in the EV industry across Africa, and it's a meaningful barrier to the continent's green mobility ambitions. In the majority of African countries, skilled workers in basic trades like electrical, civil, and mechanical work are limited.  

• To solve this, companies are directly partnering with universities for training. Last week, Kenya-based Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) signed a similar deal with electric motorcycle company ARC Ride to enhance knowledge transfer, research, and skills development in the sector. 

More details

• As part of the partnership, Spiro donated five electric motorcycles to Mount Kigali University for training, demonstration, and awareness campaigns. Spiro is Africa’s largest electric motorcycle company, and operates in eight countries on the continent. 

• The deal will see MKU students get internship placements at Spiro, access to technical training, and exposure to real-world applications of electric vehicle technology. The two institutions will also co-develop academic content, host public lectures, and establish platforms to promote knowledge sharing on sustainable mobility. 

• The Spiro-MKU partnership mirrors similar deals being signed between EV companies and institutions of higher learning in Africa to train learners in electric mobility. For example, the ARC Ride-JKUAT partnership, which was signed last week, will integrate real- world industry insights into academic programs, ensuring that curricula and training initiatives reflect emerging technological advancements and global best practices. 

• There are more than 1,200 universities in Africa, with many of them teaching electrical, mechanical and software engineering. However, the majority do not have tailored teaching units for EVs. While there are thousands of automotive technicians on the continent for example, the majority are yet to interact with EVs, forcing electric mobility startups that are establishing assembly or manufacturing operations to invest in training. 

• Currently, many EV companies in Africa rely on foreign technical teams from China or India for initial setup and training, raising costs and slowing knowledge transfer. This is forcing companies which are yet to create linkages with institutions of higher learning to create in-house training programs to fast-track knowledge transfer to their workers. 

• Partnerships like Spiro’s and ARC Ride’s show that EV companies are taking matters into their own hands to close the skills gap in the EV industry, which is growing rapidly. However, the private sector cannot overcome this challenge alone. It requires a concerted effort especially from the government to support institutions of higher learning to implement learning programmes that are relevant to the market. 

Our take

• The linkage between the EV industry and academia will create structured internship and apprenticeship programs, giving students direct entry into EV companies. This will reduce reliance on foreign technical teams.

• Partnerships with leading EV companies could facilitate more African universities to start integrating EV-specific modules such as battery tech, charging systems, diagnostics, sustainability into engineering and vocational courses, making graduates industry-ready.

• The momentum that has been started by the private sector and academia should enable African governments to step in and begin offering incentives such as budgetary allocation, grants, curriculum funding, and public–private partnerships to scale EV-focused training.