Economy

ICT graduates set for county jobs in digital talent drive

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Victor Kyalo, the ICT Principal Secretary. PHOTO | FILE

County governments are set to benefit from 400 graduates of ICT-related courses under the second phase of the Presidential Digital-Talent Programme to boost their ICT human capacity.

Victor Kyalo, the ICT Principal Secretary, said his ministry was in talks with county governments which will see a number of the graduate trainees posted to the devolved units.

The Presidential Digital Talent initiative is a public–private sector partnership run by the ICT Authority. The programme targets recent university IT graduates who have attained first or upper second class honours degree and have been out of school for less than two years.

Trainees are expected to come up with innovations meant to enhance public ICT offerings and improve service delivery during the training.

“Currently, the ICT Authority is in the process of recruiting 400 ICT graduates trainees for the Presidential Digital Talent Programme PDTP as part of the government’s commitment to leverage on ICT and enhance citizen services delivery, “ Mr Kyalo said during the ongoing Connected Kenya Summit at Kwale County.

During the summit, Ken Lusaka, the Governor for Bugoma County, petitioned the national government through the ICT Authority to offer support for human capacity development in technology.

“County governments are embracing ICT by automating their revenue collection system, this has helped to seal the revenue leakages, but we are asking the ICT Authority to help us build capacity to manage our ICT infrastructure,” Mr Lusaka said. 

“The recruits will be deployed in the counties and we are calling on the governments to work with us to realise this,” he said.

The programme includes training in software, soft skills, mentoring and placement in a private or public sector firm.

The intake has increased fourfold following President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to grow the number of trainees from 100 to 400 graduates.

The programme also requires the trainees to interact with experienced mentors for career guidance. The training aims to build technical capacity for the government and enrich the country’s public IT systems.

The first batch of 100 graduates trainees are now awaiting graduation from the Kenya School of Government and a presidential award and certificate.