Across Sub-Saharan Africa, many secondary schools, especially those with limited resources, provide little or no structured career guidance. As a result, students often complete their schooling with minimal access to reliable information about education pathways, labour market opportunities, or emerging sectors of employment. In the absence of formal guidance systems, young people frequently rely on informal sources such as family members, peers, or chance encounters when making decisions about their educational and career futures. While these sources can be helpful, they do not always provide the breadth of information needed for informed decisions. 

At the same time, access to mobile phones has grown rapidly. Young people increasingly use mobile devices to find information, communicate, and engage with digital content. Over the past decade, mobile learning initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa have expanded, particularly in areas such as literacy, language learning, and teacher professional development. Despite this growth, mobile technologies have rarely been explored as a tool to support career guidance. This is significant because effective career guidance can shape aspirations and help students transition successfully from education to employment. 

This study investigates how mobile learning can support career guidance in secondary schools across Sub-Saharan Africa. It examines how digital and mobile platforms currently provide career-related information and how these platforms might be improved to support students’ understanding of career pathways and opportunities. In particular, the research focuses on making career guidance more accessible and relevant to local economic and social realities, especially in areas where traditional guidance services are limited. 

The research uses a qualitative, exploratory design. It begins with a scoping review of existing mobile and digital initiatives providing career guidance to secondary school students across Sub-Saharan Africa, mapping the types of guidance offered and the platforms delivering it. This is followed by a qualitative analysis of selected platforms to explore how career pathways, labour markets, and educational opportunities are represented digitally. Finally, focus groups and semi-structured interviews with students, teachers, youth practitioners, and policy stakeholders examine attitudes toward mobile-based career guidance and gather ideas to inform the design of a single, contextually relevant, and equitable model. 

By addressing the three guiding research questions —understanding the current landscape of mobile learning initiatives, examining the challenges and opportunities affecting adoption, and identifying design principles for a single contextually relevant and equity-focused model—this study aims to develop a mobile learning career guidance model tailored for high school students in Sub-Saharan Africa. The findings will provide practical insights for educators, policymakers, and organizations working in digital education and youth development, demonstrating how mobile learning can expand access to career information while aligning with students’ local realities and needs.