Youths get help to acquire job skills

The government intends to boost internships by giving private companies tax breaks, providing an avenue for experience to jobless youth.

Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta has disclosed that the government intends to engage the private sector on ways that the tax breaks could be extended for offering internships to help jobseekers get work experience to boost their chances for employment.

“I will be consulting with private sector players on the best ways to extend tax breaks for firms offering internship and training placement for youth, training and passing on the relevant work experience and enhancing the employability of youth,” said Mr Kenyatta in his budget presentation to parliament.
The minister said that the tax breaks will also help job seekers secure internships, which are difficult to obtain as available opportunities are few.

Consulting firms such as Deloitte, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ernst &Young offer periodic internships to graduates from universities and colleges.

Banks including Equity, Kenya Commercial Bank, National Bank of Kenya and Barclays Bank and manufacturing and processing companies such as East African Breweries and Unilever Kenya also offer internships periodically for fresh graduates and college leavers.

The Finance minister is banking on the acceptance of the programme by companies under the of the Kenya Private Sector Alliance (Kepsa) and the Kenya Association of Manufacturers and others for the success of the programme.

Last year, Kepsa was selected by the World Bank to implement an internship programme that is targeted to benefit 11,000 youth from July last year to the end of December 2014.

Under the programme dubbed Kenya Youth Empowerment Project, which the World Bank is funding to the tune of Sh4.6 billion, interns earn a monthly stipend besides getting much needed work-related skills through from the companies where they are attached.

Kepsa chief executive officer Carole Kariuki said the move to provide the tax breaks was welcome and would boost the number of jobseekers gaining the relevant work experience for the job market.

“For us it is a positive move and it seems the government is appreciating what we are doing,” said Ms Kariuki, adding that the programme could make it easier for those leaving universities and colleges secure and create employment.

She said that under the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project, which seeks to place the interns into formal sector jobs or self-employment within six months after the internship, each company gets Sh3,000 a month per intern taken in.

Ms Karuiki said that the government programme could succeed if the companies are given clear instructions and timelines so that it is not open to abuse adding that universities and colleges where the interns are hired from could also help with the monitoring.

“If the companies use the model that we have under the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project then that will help since there are safeguards for monitoring. We give the companies very clear instructions on what to do with those interns under the programme,” she said.

Deloitte East Africa’s tax leader Nikhil Hira said that the programme would encourage firms to take on interns and it would be difficult for private companies to “keep rolling over interns” as they would be considered permanent employees.

“There are safeguards to catch this kind of thing under pay as you earn and I do not think private firms would be able to get away with it,” he said during Deloitte’s Budget briefing.