One of the aftermaths of the 2020 Endsars protest was the mass migration of Nigerians to other countries, especially to the United Kingdom. Immigration is often tough, with a lot of persons being fed the wrong information or falling into the hands of scammers. In the past three years, Kelvin Alaneme, through his Ed-Tech startup, CareerEdu, has been a notable guide for young Nigerians who want to relocate abroad for better opportunities.
Born over three decades ago in the south-eastern part of Nigeria, Kelvin who is a medical doctor working as a Specialist Registrar in Psychiatry with the National Health Service (NHS) has guided more than 1,000 people to cross the border of Nigeria to other countries.
This laudable initiative began after Kelvin made a post on Facebook urging people who want to relocate out of the country to contact him after the killing of some protesters in October 2020. On that day, more than five hundred people contacted him, and he spent the following 48 hours responding to their messages. To streamline responses and make it easier to relay the free information he was giving out, he opened a WhatsApp group which promptly got filled in two hours before migrating to Telegram. Less than three years later, CareerEdu Telegram Group has become Nigeria’s largest opportunities platform with an active member count of more than 43,000 persons.
CareerEdu guides young Nigerians who wish to travel abroad to study to get study Visas (Tier-4 Visas in the UK). It also helps those relocating for work with guidance on how to get work Visas (Tier 2 Visa in the UK).
The facilitators on the CareerEdu platform share free information on the step-by-step approach to landing a Master’s admission to the UK and other countries like Canada, Australia, Romania. The platform also provided guidance to PhD. Admissions, daily scholarship and job updates, IELTS exam preparation service, Visa application service and flight booking service.
CareerEdu also has a Care Job Pathway Service which has proven to be very effective at helping people find jobs and relocate to the UK to work as Healthcare Assistants. Through this service, the platform prepares applicants to improve their chances of landing employment by inserting them into job pools, helping them prepare for interviews and generally providing guidance till they land job offers in the United Kingdom.
Beyond CareerEdu, Kelvin Alaneme has also been a strong advocate for the #reformIELTS movement – a push to recognize Nigerians as English-speaking and for the UK Government to exempt Nigerians from taking the IELTS as a pre-requisite for admissions and jobs. He championed this cause in his interview with the BBC in May 2022.
Kelvin’s efforts at helping young African immigrants via CareerEdu have not gone unnoticed. In 2023, he was honoured by his Alma mater Glasgow Caledonian University as the GCU Alumni of the Year 2022 – for promoting the institution’s ethos by working in areas of the common good. He received the 2021 Magnusson Award from the same institution. He is a 2020 Leader of Tomorrow by the Global Biotech Revolution. His healthcare financing innovation, Insura, won the 2020 Voices of Tomorrow Competition organised by the GapSummit at the University of Cambridge.
Getting the right information in the course of a migration process is vital. However, the information flow is poor, with some successful persons being reported to hoard this information or charge exorbitant fees to provide guidance. Through CareerEdu, Kelvin Alaneme has been able to make relocation information available for free, bringing much-needed succour to young Africans.
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