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Kenya scores poorly in skills development, says new study

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WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Kenya performs poorly in development of future skills and know-how, says a new assessment on human capital, throwing a huge challenge on policy making to the government.

The report ranks Kenya 78 out of 130 countries surveyed, with an overall score of 59.48.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) Human Capital Report 2017 says the country is doing relatively well in deployment, but paints a worrying picture for a nation that aspires to become a tech hub in Africa.

In development of future skills and know-how, Kenya is ranked 101. The report places the country at position 74 in use of specialised skills at work.

Released on Wednesday, the report looks at 130 countries against four key areas of human capital development. These are, capacity: largely determined by past investment in formal education.

Deployment: the application and accumulation of skills through work. Development: the formal education of the next generation workforce and continued up-skilling and reskilling of existing workers. And know-how: the breadth and depth of specialised skills-use at work.

Countries’ performance were also measured across five distinct age groups or generations: 0-14, 15-24, 25-54, 55-64, and 65 and over. The report says its aim is to encourage governments to adopt a completely new strategy for developing talent.

“The fourth industrial revolution does not just disrupt employment, it creates a shortfall of newly required skills. Therefore, we are facing a global talent crisis. We need a new mind-set and a true revolution to adapt our educational systems to the education needed for the future workforce,” said WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab.

READ: Skills gap query as State pumps Sh1.5bn into training

Last year, the forum said there were jobs today that did not exist 10 years ago.

It predicted that at least 65 per cent of children entering primary school will ultimately end up working in completely new jobs that aren’t on the radar yet, owing to rapid advances in technology.

“Countries’ strategies for developing human capital should vary according to demographic structure. However, every country risks creating lost generations if they fail to adopt a more holistic approach to nurturing talent that takes into account a proactive approach to managing the transition from education to employment and to ongoing learning and skills acquisition,” said WEF head of education, gender and work, Saadia Zahidi.

The report indicates that 62 per cent of human capital has been developed globally.

Only 25 nations have tapped 70 per cent of their human capital or more, with the majority of countries averaging 50-70 per cent of their human capital. Fourteen countries remain below 50 per cent.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the lowest-ranked region in the index. Rwanda (71), Ghana (72), Cameroon (73) and Mauritius (74) have developed more than 60 per cent of their human capital.

READ: Local graduates lack key skills for job market

South Africa (87), the region’s second largest economy, comes towards the middle in the region. Nigeria (114) ranks in the lower midfield and Ethiopia (127) is the lowest performer, fourth from the bottom on the index overall.

According to the Kenya Economic Outlook 2017 by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), in 2016 the economy generated a total of 832,900 new jobs, of which 85,600 were formal while 747,300 were informal.

The 2017 Human Development Index by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) shows that nearly four in every 10 Kenyans of working age have no jobs — the worst level of unemployment in the region.

The UNDP report states that 39.1 per cent of Kenyans of working age are unemployed, warning that soaring unemployment in the region, especially in Kenya, could breed runaway crime and violence.