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Everything here is a real event with a real date. We post when something changes, not on a schedule.

The second HYPE cohort opens for applications in September

HYPE stands for Harnessing Youth Potential through Empowerment. The first cohort ran remotely through 2023 and graduated in 2024: over 69 students applied, 25 were shortlisted, 14 completed the programme, and all 14 were placed. We are running it again, and applications open in September.

The second cohort is not a repeat of the first. That one ran six months, part time, pairing core skills with a specialised track, and it worked. But the market those graduates walked into has moved since, and the programme is moving with it.

The new cohort is three months, intensive and blended, and its spine is AI literacy and low code automation. Not as a module bolted on at the end, but across every track: an intern learning graphic design and an intern learning digital marketing both leave able to use AI tools competently and to build a working automation. The people getting hired now are the ones who can make software do the repetitive part of the job. We would rather teach that while it is still an advantage than in three years when it is the baseline.

Training is roughly seventy percent project work. Each intern picks a track from website design and development, mobile app development, UI and UX design, graphic design, animation, automation, and digital marketing. Everyone finishes with a professional portfolio and a mandatory capstone: a real business problem, solved with at least one AI tool and at least one low code automation workflow, presented publicly at the end of the programme.

The soft skills track stays, because it is the half most training leaves out. Professional communication, teamwork, entrepreneurship, and the ethics of using AI honestly. An intern who can build something but cannot explain it, meet a deadline or work with a team is not ready, and we would rather teach both halves than pretend otherwise.

The audience widens too. The first cohort was university students. This one is aimed at young Ghanaians at the point where career guidance actually changes the outcome: those finishing secondary school and those in their first years of university. Career guidance, real digital experience and an early portfolio are worth more at seventeen than at twenty three.

Support does not stop at graduation. Placement help, entrepreneurship coaching for those going the freelance route, and an alumni network that stays in touch are part of the programme rather than a favour afterwards.

Placement is the point of the whole thing. The first cohort went into technology companies, government agencies and NGOs, among them BeTechConnected, Eco Africa, Maltiti Foundation and Accra Food Bank. Several graduates still give time to the nonprofits we support, and several are on our volunteer list to help train the cohort coming after them. That loop is the Foundation working as intended: we train young people, they find their footing, and the organisations that could never afford that skill get it anyway.

The first cohort was taught by 11 facilitators, every one of them a volunteer. That is worth saying plainly: experienced professionals gave their time so that students who could not have paid for this training received it anyway. We are recruiting facilitators and mentors for the second cohort now, and we are talking to companies that can host interns or hand over a real project.

Applications open in September. You will need a genuine interest in digital work, enough English to follow the material, a reliable internet connection and a computer, and the commitment to see the three months through. Any field of study is welcome.

Students who want a place, companies that can host an intern or offer a project, and professionals who want to facilitate or mentor can write to us now and we will contact you when applications open.

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Reach should not be bought

Earlier

What came before

The organisations we have worked with

A grant programme should be able to say who it has actually worked with, so we now do: Eco Africa, Accra Food Bank, BeTechConnected and Maltiti Foundation are among the organisations Unit Foundation has supported and advised. More than ten NGOs have come through our work so far.

Between them, those organisations reach over a thousand people in their own communities. That is the number that matters to us. We do not serve those communities ourselves; we make sure the organisations that do can be heard, can answer quickly, and can show a funder what a year of work produced.

We keep the claim plain: these are organisations we have worked with, in the ways each engagement called for. As more come through the programme, the list will grow.

Applications are open online

The online application is live. It takes about ten minutes: tell us about your organisation, upload your registration certificate, and tell us where your community already is.

Every application is read by a person. We check the registration, read what the organisation does, and reply within five working days either way. Approval creates the workspace; nothing is set up before that.

The grant is Ghana first and open globally. If your organisation is registered with your country's authority and your work serves the public benefit, you qualify to apply.

Unit is free for nonprofits, permanently

Unit is a social communications platform that publishes to Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, brings every comment and message into one inbox, and includes an AI trained on an organisation's own mission. Businesses pay for it. From today, registered nonprofits do not.

This is not a discounted tier or a trial that expires. Approved organisations receive every feature on the highest plan, with no card and no expiry date, and we do the setup with them: channels connected, the AI taught what the organisation does, the team trained until they are comfortable.

We opened the programme because access to communication technology is distributed by ability to pay rather than by need. A foundation running a feeding programme has no communications team. That is the gap the Foundation exists to close.

Unit's publishing calendar with a week of planned posts

The first HYPE cohort completes the programme

HYPE stands for Harnessing Youth Potential through Empowerment. The programme exists because the gap between a university curriculum and a first job is real: graduates arrive with theory and are asked for practice.

Over 69 students applied. We shortlisted 25 and took 14 through six months of remote training that began in 2023: four months of core skills and a specialised track together, then two months on real project work, and a final presentation at the end. Core skills covered personal development, digital literacy and data literacy. Tracks were digital marketing and strategy, website design and development, graphic design, UI and UX design, and project management.

Eleven facilitators taught the cohort, every one of them a volunteer. Interns were paired with mentors in their own track for the duration, and finished with work they can point to, references from people they worked with, and a clear idea of what working life asks of them.

Every one of the 14 was placed. They are working today in technology companies, government agencies and NGOs, among them BeTechConnected, Eco Africa, Maltiti Foundation and Accra Food Bank. Several have stayed close to the Foundation since: some give time to the nonprofits we support, and several are on our volunteer list to help train the next cohort.

A second cohort follows, with applications opening in September 2026.

The 2023 HYPE internship flyer, advertising remote training in digital marketing, web design and development, graphic design, and UI and UX design

See what the programs do now