NAIROBI, Kenya – Kenyan youth have been urged to embrace technical courses and skills that align with employment opportunities in the job market.
Lillian Ndegwa, the Country Director of Swisscontact Kenya, emphasized the importance of aligning courses and skills taught at Technical and Vocational Training Institutes (TVETs) and universities with the current labour market demands.
In an interview with Capital FM, Ndegwa said that failing to bridge this gap could lead to a mismatch between skills acquired and available job opportunities, ultimately contributing to youth unemployment.
She stressed that the private sector plays a crucial role in addressing youth unemployment through economic empowerment programs that create job opportunities.
“For us here in Kenya we have a young population, great education system that we need to pivot a little bit in order to ensure the youth are skilled and are able to get job opportunities both locally and internationally,” she said.
She added that the government should focus on how to incentivize the private sector for them to initiate programs aimed for economic development of the nation and for the young people to gain the skills required in the job market.
“If we continue to refine our education to be responsive to what the industry needs, our young people will be able to get the opportunities even in different sectors,” she said during the interview.
Swisscontact Kenya is currently running a skills development program dubbed “PropelA” which propels the Dual Apprenticeship model of training to train young Kenyan men and women aged 18 to 30 years in areas of plumbing and electrical wiring. She said, “Students who enroll in the PropelA program receive a two years training in both Electrical and Plumbing skills where they also get paid as they undertake their training in various Companies.”
Ndwegwa revealed that the organization rolled out the second phase of PropelA Apprenticeship Project set to benefit 150 trainees, a rise from 100 people trained during the first phase of the program. She also mentioned that the flagship project model will soon be activated in Mombasa County to empower and train the jobless youth in the county.
