How Impact Drives Every Decision at ALX

Africa is home to the youngest, fastest-growing workforce on the planet. Yet millions of its youth are locked out of opportunity. At ALX, we see this not as a crisis, but as a chance to build the world’s most dynamic talent engine. And it starts with one question: are we truly creating the impact we say we are?

At ALX, data is more than a reporting tool – it’s a compass. It guides how we scale opportunity, measure transformation, and hold ourselves accountable. Behind the scenes, the Impact Team ensures we’re not just moving fast, but in the right direction. We sat down with Surosh Pillay, who leads this critical function, to explore how ALX tracks progress, learns from outcomes, and uses data to build trust, drive change, and shape the future of work in Africa.

To begin, Surosh, what exactly is the Impact Team at ALX and ALG, and what’s its core mission?.

Surosh: Thanks for having me. At ALX and ALG, our focus is on two key objectives. ALX is dedicated to creating 2 million work opportunities for Africa’s youth by 2030, equipping them with in-demand skills. At the group level, ALG aims to foster 3 million ethical entrepreneurial leaders by 2035. These goals complement each other and are designed to have a lasting sustainable impact, transforming Africa.

Our Impact team isn’t just focused on measuring outcomes for reports; our efforts are designed to guide the organisation’s future. Data is our feedback loop. It tells us where to double down, where to pivot, and how to serve our learners better, faster, and at scale.

At its core though, impact is not about numbers – it’s about accountability. If we promise to transform lives, we must be willing to prove it. That’s why our approach to measurement starts with radical transparency and ends with continuous reinvention. We track, learn from, and highlight the impact we aim to achieve, using data not just to measure progress but to enhance it.

Why is it so important for ALX to track and measure its impact? What insights does this data provide?

Surosh: “Impact” is central to our mission of driving social change across Africa. We operate in a region where talent is abundant but opportunities are not always equally accessible. It’s crucial that we ensure our efforts truly make a difference.

In a continent of over 1 billion people, hope alone won’t solve youth unemployment. If we don’t rigorously track what works, we risk scaling noise instead of impact. Without a consistent framework for tracking and reporting, it's easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of activity—enrolled learners, training, and graduates. Impact monitoring helps us demonstrate and gain valuable insights into whether we are fulfilling our mission. It aligns with our guiding principle, to “show and not tell.”

Access to real-time data and metrics at every stage of the learner journey—from selection to training to job placement—allows us to understand what’s effective and what can be improved to close opportunity gaps and achieve long-term sustainable outcomes. The data keeps us transparent, agile, and responsive to learner and market needs. It also builds trust with our partners and funders by showing them the return on their investment.

How does the Impact Team currently gather data on learner outcomes? What types of information do you collect?

Surosh: We have a comprehensive system in place to monitor our learners' progress. This includes:

• Baseline data (e.g., demographics, employment status, career goals)
• Programme performance (e.g., engagement, retention, skill development, satisfaction)
• Post-graduation outcomes (e.g., employment, income, career growth, job quality)

We use a combination of quantitative tools, like surveys and platform analytics, and qualitative methods, such as alumni relationship management, focus groups, and interviews.

You mentioned tracking learners from a "baseline." Can you explain what that baseline is and why it's important?

Surosh: The baseline is our starting point. It helps us understand each learner's situation before they begin their ALX journey. For instance, are they unemployed? If employed, what is their current income? What are their aspirations? By aggregating this data, we can also determine if we are reaching the underserved learners who need support, such as women, individuals with disabilities, those from rural areas, or low-income households. This is vital because without a baseline, we cannot measure change, growth, or the value we add. It's like setting a GPS; we need to know our starting location to track our journey and progress.

What are some key metrics you use to assess the success of ALX programmes?

Surosh: If we don’t measure it, we can’t improve it. Impact data is how we hold ourselves accountable to Africa’s youth, so we monitor various leading and lagging metrics across the entire process. Some examples include:

• Cost Per Learner
• Number of enrolled learners
• Learner Activation Rate
• Retention/Graduation Rate
• Learner Satisfaction (CSAT & NPS)
• Number of Youth in new Work
• Number of Youth Starting Ventures
• Pre- and post-program salaries
• Percentage of improved job outcomes
• Percentage of graduates who maintain their jobs
• Placement rates
• Percentage reporting dignified and fulfilling work
• Secondary Jobs created by entrepreneurs
• Funding raised by entrepreneurs

How does the Impact Team plan to make this data visible and accessible, internally and externally?

Surosh: Data visibility and transparency are priorities for us. We’ve developed a real-time impact dashboard that provides live access to our key metrics. Internally, this helps our teams make data-driven decisions. Externally, it fosters trust with our learners and partners. We are also increasing our use of data storytelling to highlight the impact and individual transformations we are facilitating.

Can you provide an example of how this impact data has influenced ALX's approach?

Surosh: Certainly. There are a couple of examples that illustrate this well. In 2020, our ALX Ventures programme graduated about 50-100 entrepreneurs annually. After we began capturing impact data, we found that each entrepreneur created an average of three jobs. This led us to significantly expand our entrepreneur training, and we are now training over 10,000 entrepreneurs per year.

Another example is our Virtual Assistant programme. Initially, we paused this programme to prioritise others. However, the impact data revealed it had high female participation, graduation, and placement rates. As a result, we reintroduced it in 2024 and graduated over 88,000 learners with a strong job placement rate.

Beyond numbers, what kinds of personal narratives are you aiming to capture?

Surosh: It’s important to remember that each data point represents a real person and their journey.

Behind every data point is a dream: a young woman building her first startup, a refugee landing his first remote job. Our impact isn’t just in numbers. It’s in the dignity restored, the ceilings shattered, the futures rewritten. We want to capture those stories—their backgrounds, aspirations, challenges, and how ALX has contributed to their personal and career growth. Our real-time dashboard allows us to see both the overall trends and the individual stories. These stories are inspiring and strengthen our relationships with employers, funders, and future learners.

What are some significant challenges you anticipate in measuring and communicating ALX's impact?

Surosh: One major challenge is monitoring post-graduation outcomes. It’s often difficult to get graduates to update us on their career progress. To address this, we’ve implemented a multi-channel and multi-phase approach to gather information at various stages of their journey. This has increased our response rates and allowed us to capture more evidence of our impact. Other challenges include ensuring data consistency across our markets and, of course, data privacy and compliance.

Looking ahead, what is your long-term vision for the Impact Team and its contribution to ALX’s goals?

Surosh: My vision is for the Impact Team to be a strategic guide for the African Leadership Group (ALG), ALX, and workforce development in Africa. We have focused on short-term outcomes, like job placement or starting a business. However, the true impact is when our alumni support their communities, take on leadership roles, and contribute to systemic change. We want to move beyond measuring impact to guiding future directions. Our vision isn’t just to train talent; it’s to build the blueprint for how Africa develops its future workforce. We want to set a global standard for how impact is defined, tracked, and used to transform lives at scale. Ten years from now, we believe the world will look to ALX as the gold standard for inclusive, outcomes-driven education. We’re not just tracking transformation; we’re leading it.

Because when Africa leads, the world benefits.

To learn more about ALX, please visit www.alxafrica.com/