The national youth training programme will equip trainees with the necessary skills to help them commercialise their talents into gainful ventures
The government has rolled out a youth training programme as part of its wider bid to encourage a change of perception by young Kenyans, from job-seeking to job-creating.
The inaugural batch of 50 youths drawn from the 47 counties has already been enrolled and will act as champions of talent management in their respective counties.
Education Secretary, State Department for Post-training and Skills Development in the Ministry of Education, Wanjiru Kariuki, said the learners in the youth training scheme will be imparted with the necessary skills to help them commercialise their talents into gainful ventures.
“This will help bridge the gap in unemployment among the young people in the country through improved productivity as well as networking and information sharing between the youth and the talent industry,” Dr Wanjiru said.
She said the youths in the current programme were drawn from previous “Kazi Mtaani” cohorts, adding that the government will expand the scope in the next financial year to accommodate more young people including special interest groups such as those living with different types of disabilities.
“The government is committed to ensuring that the programme achieves its intended objectives with the participants expected to demonstrate the ability to identify and develop talents, develop entrepreneurial skills for talent management as well as gain skills on how to brand and market their talent,” she said.
Wanjiru further said that a change of perception by young Kenyans from being employed to being employers will help create more jobs, especially for the youth who constitute 75 per cent of Kenya’s population.
“The 2019 Kenya Youth Development Policy report indicated that the youth constitute a huge pool of untapped talent potential in sports and performing arts,” she said, adding that this was what informed the decision to come up with the programme in order to help the youth earn a living by nurturing their talents.
The youths will also get training on Intellectual Property Rights to protect themselves and their crafts from being exploited, determine appropriate resources for talent management as well as on how to apply collaboration, communication and creativity skills in talent management.
“As part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Agenda, sports and performing arts have been recognised as an important enabler of sustainable development hence talents need to be nurtured so that they can make an important contribution to economic growth,” Dr Wanjiru said.
Director, Technical Education, in the same ministry, Meshack Opwora, added that the trainees will be exposed to mentors who have been exceptional in their respective fields to gain first-hand insights on how to positively and gainfully utilise their talents.
Dr Opwora added that the Department is making plans to cascade the programme to the sub-county level in order for more youths to be absorbed.
Source: MY Gov