SolarLearn Skills Training

Overview

There is a quiet failure mode in the clean energy sector. A community receives a solar installation, it works for a while, then a fault develops that nobody within reach knows how to diagnose, and the system dies years before its design life. The technology was never the problem; the missing ingredient was a trained person nearby. Nigeria’s energy transition will be built or broken by how many of those people exist and how close they live to the systems that need them.

SolarLearn is being built to close that gap, and to turn it into livelihoods while doing so.

The opportunity

Nigeria has a young population short of good work, and a fast-growing solar sector that consistently struggles to find qualified technicians. Those two facts sitting side by side are a training programme waiting to exist. Solar installation and maintenance is skilled work with real and rising demand, and it cannot be outsourced abroad, because the roofs are here. For a young person, solar competence is a direct route to employment, to self-employment serving their own community, or to a small enterprise that employs others.

Programme structure

SolarLearn has three strands:

• Energy literacy, open to everyone: how energy works, how to read and reduce consumption, and how to make informed decisions about solar.
• Solar fundamentals, the technical core: components, system sizing basics, safe practice, and maintenance, built around the equipment actually sold and installed in Nigeria.
• Green enterprise, for those turning skills into income: pricing work, keeping simple accounts, serving customers, and building a reputation.

Delivery: online first, on purpose

SolarLearn starts online. A learner in any state, on a basic smartphone, can begin without waiting for a training centre to open near them, and the format reaches women and young people for whom travelling to a physical centre is difficult. Lessons will be short and low-bandwidth, with written summaries alongside every video for learners for whom video data is expensive.

We are equally clear about what online learning cannot do. Nobody should be on a roof on the strength of videos alone. The online strands build knowledge, vocabulary, and safety awareness; hands-on practical training under qualified supervision is the planned next stage, and it is where certification and employability fully mature.

Measurement

We will track enrolments, completions, and, over time, what completion leads to. A training programme that cannot evidence its outcomes is asking learners and funders alike to take it on faith, and we intend to earn ours.

Current status

Curriculum design is underway for the first online modules. Enrolment is not yet open; the launch will be announced on this site and on our social channels.

Work with us

Three kinds of people can shape SolarLearn right now: experienced solar technicians and engineers willing to review curriculum for real-world accuracy, organisations already delivering skills training who want to partner, and funders who recognise that the cheapest way to protect every solar asset in Nigeria is to surround it with people trained to keep it alive. Write to info@celi.org.ng.

Status: In development. First online modules in design. Last updated July 2026.