The trades you cannot fill. The learners we prepare.
Miva Skills Navigator teaches the groundwork that entrance tests and first days assume — electrical basics, digital literacy, workplace communication, safety and logistics — on low-cost phones, offline, in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish. We do not issue trade certificates. We get people to the door able to pass the test.
- Trades mapped
- 20
- Typical time to fill
- 1 to 12 months, depending on the licence involved
- Places per cohort
- 15
- Regions
- West Africa and a North America pilot
The supply gap, in four sentences
The queue to qualify is long
Almost every one of these trades puts a licence, a coded test or a certified-hours requirement between a willing person and a first shift. Supply cannot respond quickly to a hiring spike, so the vacancy stays open.
The people leaving outnumber the people arriving
A large share of the current workforce is close to retirement, while training intakes are capped by placements, test centres and instructor availability rather than by demand.
Automation moves the work, it does not remove it
Software inspects, predicts and assists. The repair still happens in a shaft, on a tower, in a pit, on a roof or beside a patient — under a signature that a certified person has to give.
Geography locks people out
Licences are regional, sites are rural and the training is urban. Qualified people and open jobs are often in different places, and neither side can move easily.
West Africa — trades and groundwork
| Trade | Time to fill | Main reason it stays open | Groundwork on Miva |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solar PV & mini-grid technician | 2–6 months per opening | Mini-grid and rooftop installation is expanding faster than accredited installer training. | Solar Panel Installation Technician, Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician |
| Industrial electrician & plant maintenance | 3–6 months per opening | Plants need motor-control and PLC skills that general electricians do not have. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Solar Panel Installation Technician |
| Certified pipe & structural welder | 2–5 months per opening | Oil, gas and construction contracts demand coded welders; most local welders hold no current ticket. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
| Refrigeration & air-conditioning technician | 1–4 months per opening | Cold chain, retail and hospitality growth outpaces refrigeration training. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
| Heavy-duty plant & diesel mechanic (mining) | 3–8 months per opening | Mines need diagnostics on branded electronic systems, not general mechanics. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
| Borehole drilling & water pump technician | 2–5 months per opening | Drilling and pump work combines mechanical, hydraulic and electrical skill in one role. | Solar Panel Installation Technician, Agribusiness Manager / Farm Operations |
| Fibre splicer & telecom tower technician | 1–4 months per opening | Fibre roll-out and tower densification are both accelerating. | IT Support / Help Desk Technician, Cybersecurity Technician (SOC Analyst) |
| Diagnostic imaging & ultrasound technician | 4–10 months per opening | Training places are tied to a small number of teaching hospitals. | Pharmacy Assistant / Health Data Clerk, IT Support / Help Desk Technician |
| Agro-processing & cold chain technician | 1–4 months per opening | Post-harvest loss programmes are installing cold rooms faster than they train maintainers. | Agribusiness Manager / Farm Operations, Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
| Heavy truck & dangerous goods driver | 1–3 months per opening | Dangerous-goods and cross-border documentation training filters out most licence holders. | Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
North America pilot — trades and groundwork
Clearly labelled as a pilot. Wage and demand figures follow published US Bureau of Labor Statistics ranges.
| Trade | Time to fill | Main reason it stays open | Groundwork on Miva |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elevator & escalator constructor | 6–12 months per opening | Union apprenticeship intakes open only once or twice a year, so supply cannot respond to a hiring spike. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Solar Panel Installation Technician |
| High-voltage utility lineworker | 4–9 months per opening | Grid hardening, electrification and data-centre load are adding work faster than academies graduate crews. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, Solar Panel Installation Technician |
| Aircraft maintenance technician (A&P) | 3–8 months per opening | The FAA A&P certificate takes 18–24 months of approved schooling or documented experience before anyone can sign off work. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician, IT Support / Help Desk Technician |
| Specialised industrial pipe welder | 2–6 months per opening | Coded welding tickets expire and must be re-tested; many welders let them lapse. | Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician |
| Commercial HVAC/R technician | 2–5 months per opening | Refrigerant handling certification and licensing add months before a hire is billable. | Solar Panel Installation Technician, Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician |
| Wind turbine service technician | 3–6 months per opening | Candidates must pass climb, rescue and medical screening on top of electrical training. | Solar Panel Installation Technician, Industrial / Electrical Maintenance Technician |
| Non-destructive testing (NDT) technician | 3–7 months per opening | Level II certification requires documented method hours that take a year or more to accumulate. | IT Support / Help Desk Technician, Cybersecurity Technician (SOC Analyst) |
| Diagnostic medical sonographer | 4–9 months per opening | Accredited programmes have limited clinical placements, capping graduates regardless of demand. | Pharmacy Assistant / Health Data Clerk, IT Support / Help Desk Technician |
| Specialised CDL driver (hazmat / tanker) | 1–4 months per opening | Hazmat and tanker endorsements require background checks and extra testing most drivers skip. | Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
| Biohazard & crime-scene remediation specialist | 2–5 months per opening | Few people will do the work, and screening for reliability and discretion removes many applicants. | Biohazard & Trauma Scene Remediation, Pharmacy Assistant / Health Data Clerk, Logistics / Supply Chain Clerk |
How to sponsor a cohort
One month per cohort, with offline access continuing afterwards. Learners keep their offline access and their certificate record afterwards.
Sponsor a cohort
One centre, one month
Covers 15 places at a pilot centre: learner accounts, offline course packs, centre-leader support and a written outcome report at the end of the month.
- Named as the cohort sponsor on the centre page
- Anonymised completion and activity report
- First sight of learners who finish and opt in to be contacted
Sponsor a trade track
One trade, multiple centres
Fund the groundwork courses feeding one trade across every pilot site, so the supply pipeline for that role grows in more than one place at once.
- Input on the groundwork content for that trade
- Quarterly supply report across sites
- Introductions to centre leaders in each country
Partner on placement
No sponsorship required
List your apprenticeship intakes, entry tests and paid-training programmes so learners who finish the groundwork apply to you directly.
- Your intake windows shown inside the relevant course
- Applications tracked by learners in the app
- Feedback on where your entry test loses candidates
What a sponsor receives
- Anonymised cohort data only. Learners are identified as SITE-01, SITE-02 and so on.
- Start, completion and activity rates against the courses you funded.
- Device and connectivity reality from the field, so you know what reaches people.
- No learner is contacted by a sponsor unless that learner opts in.