Equip youth with expertise for the global job market

Kenyans view our overly large number of young unemployed population differently. Politicians see an easy pool of votes in them. Others read crime and Al-Shabaab threats in the idle youth.

Not many see huge and valuable opportunities in the large number of youths. However, such opportunities can only be realised if we empower the youth with relevant skills and experience for use here in Kenya and also for potential export into the globalised labour market.

One recent example of an opportunity to create skills came with the laptop project for primary schools. This project which is sufficiently funded has come with a critical mass of ICT technical requirements.

The government has decided to “localise” the assembly of laptops and creation of content at four universities. This may have been inspired by the recent 40 per cent local content procurement policy.

The localised laptop procurement will definitely jump-start a new line of ICT technical skills development in Kenya. After completing the laptop project, the skills developed can potentially be outsourced to the private sector to nurture similar ICT equipment assembly.

This looks like a good pioneer candidate for Konza Techno-City. However, there is need to institutionalise the ICT technical training to give it certification standards that meet international ICT industry requirements.

On the subject of professional technical skills development, there are three parties who have a shared interest. There is the private sector business community; the government through various ministries; and the training institutions.

What appears to be missing is a permanent working/consultative group to link the three key stakeholders to advice on how to effectively deliver demand-driven technical skills at graduate, diploma and certificate levels. Involvement of private sector is utterly necessary.

However, we should acknowledge the recent achievements by the Education ministry in establishing TVET (Technical and Vocational Education Training) legal, regulatory and institutional framework which is critical for orderly technical skills development.

The government has also increased national budgetary allocations to technical education, while setting up more polytechnics across the country.
This should, however, be seen as work in progress as TVET institutions are still facing a number of challenges.

The challenges include shortage of suitably trained teachers with sufficient industrial exposure; inadequate modern training equipment; limited industrial attachment opportunities; and weak curricula that do not always answer to business needs of today.

At the graduate level, universities appear to be competing for mass enrolment driven by what could be a desire to maximise revenue generation. And this makes it difficult to deliver quality graduate technical education.

The government may have to select institutions (universities and TVET institutions) that shall be prioritised for Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) bursary allocations and also for technical research and development. These then shall be the centres of technical training excellence.

In the recent past, we have observed a number of individual efforts to create technical skills by specific companies to meet their immediate skills requirements.

Theirs is mainly hands-on training which is very essential. This is what our technical training institutions mostly lack. Certificates issued by these companies are usually company-branded and may lack wider recognition within and outside the country.

How can we bring this type of specialised private sector training into the national technical training framework so that certification is standardised to meet national and international yardsticks?

Standardised certification and qualifications can permit cross-sector job mobility and also open opportunities for employment outside Kenya.

The same goes for the National Youth Service (NYS) technical skills training which should be brought under the national TVET framework for the purpose of training and qualification standardisation.

Experts have argued that to motivate our youth into entering technical and vocational institutions, training and certification should be modular.

This would allow an upward mobility of technical training by individuals from certificate, to diploma, and further into bachelor and even masters qualifications.

Choosing TVET institution training should not be perceived by our youths as limiting their ambitions to eventually earn technical degrees at the highest level possible.

This approach will increase the number of bright young Kenyans choosing to join TVET institutions.

The biggest future opportunity for the youths mobilisation lies in the emergent global demographic dilemma. For varying reasons, Europeans and some Asians have gone slow on procreation.

This leaves a very aged population that may not sufficiently sustain their future economic expansion. On the other hand, the sub-Saharan Africa (including Kenya) has the exact opposite dilemma of a growing number of younger people.

By 2030, experts say that Europe and Asia shall be importing skills from Africa.

The obvious opportunity for Kenya is to systematically create a pool of skilled persons who can join the global job market now and in the future. To beat competition, Kenya should target skills standards that are above global average.

We cannot plan and implement large development programmes and projects without simultaneously planning and funding corresponding skills development. We should not at any time be worried about surplus quality skills as these will easily filter into global labour markets.

Mr Wachira is the director, Petroleum Focus Consultants E-mail: [email protected]