In a continent where millions of young graduates are equipped with certificates but not experience, TURNVE, a female-led Nigerian startup is rewriting what it means to be job-ready.
Founded by Esther Chika Emejulu, the startup says it is creating a bridge between education and employment through virtual project simulations that give users a taste of the real working world, without needing their first job.
In this edition of Techparley’s DRIVE100, where we spotlight Africa’s most promising and impactful startups, we turn our attention to how TURNVE is helping African graduates and career switchers gain real-world work experience through virtual simulations.
“Graduates and early-career professionals struggle to get jobs because they lack real-world, practical experience,” Emejulu told Techparley. “TURNVE solves the problem by giving graduates early-career professionals, and career switchers a practical way to gain real-world project experience and career guidance without needing a first job.”
What You Should Know
Emejulu describes TURNVE as something of a “monopoly game” – but instead of fake property and play money, it features virtual teams, digital budgets, and realistic project scenarios that simulate workplace challenges.
“We’re helping young people go from ‘I have a professional certificate or degree’ to ‘I’m ready for the job’. We help users bridge the gap between learning and employment, boost confidence, and stand out in today’s competitive job market,” Emejulu said.
Through these AI-guided simulations, users pick an industry and methodology, and then tackle authentic scenarios. The system automatically generates project documents, stores them in a Portfolio Hub, and allows users to share their work with potential employers.
According to Emejulu, an AI Career Coach sits at the heart of the platform, providing personalised feedback, CV reviews, and step-by-step career guidance.
How TURNVE Stands Out
TURNVE operates in a crowded EdTech space that includes AltSchool Africa, Utiva, The Bulb Africa, Coursera, and LinkedIn Learning. But unlike these platforms, which focus largely on theory and structured online courses, TURNVE focuses on personalised practical, experiential learning, and hands-on career readiness.
“We don’t just teach, we replicate the real work environment, allowing users to apply knowledge through AI-guided project simulations, receive instant feedback from an AI career coach, and build a verified portfolio that proves their job readiness,” Emejulu explained.
The result is a more credible way for graduates and career switchers to demonstrate their readiness to employers through verified portfolios backed by measurable experience.
Although still early in its journey, TURNVE has already gained noteworthy traction. Its waitlist landing page has over 100 sign-ups. The startup’s MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is currently in development, set to launch in December 2025.
The team has also hosted two online webinars to gather insights and feedback from early adopters, and is bootstrapped with ₦1.5 million ($1,000) in funding from family support.
Emejulu revealed TURNVE recently gained entry into the Delta II Residency, a global accelerator programme focused on empowering early-stage founders through a three-week sprint of mentorship and product refinement.
The Team Powering TURNVE
Emejulu leads a small but passionate team of innovators who deeply understand the pain points they are solving:
- Queen – Co-founder and CTO: drives the product vision, merging technical precision with creative design.
- Chidumebi – UI/UX Designer: ensures learning feels simple and engaging for users.
- Maverick – Backend Developer: maintains system performance, security, and scalability.
- Kingsley – Graphic Designer: translates the brand’s purpose into visual storytelling.
“We are the right people for TURNVE because we understand both the vision and the execution,” Emejulu reflects. “TURNVE is not just another project to us, we believe in it. That’s why we give it the mix of vision, discipline, and care it needs to really stand out.”
Bootstrapping Through Challenges
Like many African startups, TURNVE’s biggest hurdle has been limited funding. Emejulu and her team have tackled this by bootstrapping, using personal savings, family support, and affordable digital tools to keep development on track.
Another challenge has been recruiting skilled technical talent. To solve this, TURNVE is building strategic volunteer partnerships with designers and developers who believe in its mission.
Awareness has also been a challenge due to marketing constraints, but the team is overcoming that by hosting interactive webinars and growing an organic online community.
Over the next 6–12 months, TURNVE plans to launch its MVP and Beta platform, and onboard 1,000 active users. The company aims to introduce AI-driven career simulations across diverse industries, and evolve into a comprehensive job readiness platform.
What This Means
Emejulu believes governments can do far more to empower young innovators. If she were Nigeria’s Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, she says she would:
- Expand affordable internet access to underserved areas.
- Create national startup funds and tax incentives for early-stage founders.
- Partner with universities and private companies to build innovation labs and digital skill programmes.
“One of the biggest challenges is the gap between innovation and infrastructure. Solving this requires stronger collaboration between the government, the private sector, and educational institutions to create an ecosystem where innovation can truly thrive,” she explained.
Africa’s education-technology (EdTech) market is experiencing rapid growth. In 2024 the e-learning market for the continent was estimated at around $3.4 billion, and it is projected to nearly quintuple to approximately $19.7 billion by 2034.
For her, Africa’s biggest EdTech challenge remains the gap between innovation and infrastructure. With TURNVE, experts say Emejulu isn’t just building another EdTech platform, she’s creating a virtual career simulator where young Africans can practise, fail, learn, and grow before their first job ever begins.
Talking Points
It is impressive that TURNVE has designed a platform where African graduates and early-career professionals can gain real-world experience through AI-powered virtual simulations, addressing one of the most persistent barriers in Africa’s labour market; the lack of practical, hands-on experience.
This approach goes beyond online learning; it replicates real workplace scenarios with virtual teams, project budgets, and deliverables, much like a career-focused monopoly game, helping users transition from academic knowledge to job readiness.
At Techparley, we see how solutions like this could redefine employability training across the continent. By offering interactive learning, portfolio-building, and AI-driven feedback, TURNVE empowers users to demonstrate real capability before landing their first role, significantly improving their employment prospects.
As TURNVE matures, it has the potential to become a continental standard for digital career readiness, enabling African talents to compete confidently on a global stage while reshaping how practical learning is delivered across the region.
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