Ghanaian-Founded Youth Education Awards In Germany Hits 10th Year Milestone

The popular African Youth Education Award (AYEA) founded by Germany-based Ghanaian entrepreneur, Desmond Beddy has crossed the 10-year milestone.

The AYEA which started in 2011, was specifically initiated to motivate African youths in Germany to enroll in schools of higher education and the highly-effective vocational education system in Germany and achieve career independence, a challenge faced by many young people of immigrant backgrounds in Germany.

This year’s event saw over 10 African students at various levels in tertiary and vocational institutions receiving prizes for their determination to make a difference. Most of the awardees were Ghanaian students who were studying courses ranging from environmental studies to political science and medicine.

The AYEA organisers keep track of each enrolled student under their programme and ensure that they support them to finish their programmes of study or training.

They also provide career counselling to these youngsters with the hope of helping them choose educational paths that would be beneficial to them and their community.

This year’s AYEA award was the first one held after it was forced to suspend its programme due to the stringent two-year COVID-19 lockdowns.

Despite the two-year hiatus, this year’s event drew a lot of attention with up to 500 guests, including the Vice President of the German Parliament (Bundestag), Aydan Ozogus and Nana Gyamfi Adwabour, the Executive Director of Ghana’s Centre for National Distance Learning and Open Schooling (CEDNLOS) who flew down to Hamburg for the event on behalf of the Ghanaian Minister of Education, Yaw Osei Adutwum.

The CEDNLOS director expressed interest in integrating his programmes to suit the objectives of AYEA for the general benefit of Ghanaian youngsters pursuing education abroad.

The Founder of AYEA, Desmond Beddy is full of high hopes that the efforts of the project will stimulate more youths of African background to become responsible participants in the social structure of Germany.