Education for Employment (E4E)

According to Kenya Bureau of Statistics 39% of Kenyan youth are unemployed. Most are unemployed because of mismatch of what is taught in school vs skills industry requires. Mass of unemployed or underemployed youth cannot afford to participate in a long term program extending beyond 6 months because it is time consuming and expensive.  Hence Education for Employment project aims at introducing short term technical course in partnership with youth polytechnics in providing skills for self-employment and employment. Intention is to reduce poverty and unemployment among the target group in poor households in selected communities in Trans-Nzoia County. Youths will be trained on short technical courses such as Tailoring and Dress Making, Electrical and Solar Installation, Hair Dressing and Beauty Therapy and Welding. These courses are in demand locally. The overall goal of the program is to enable the youth to be better equipped with skills that enable sustainable livelihoods. 

Youth unemployment in Kenya is compounded by substantial levels of underemployment and poor quality jobs in the informal sector coupled with this, there are rising concerns over increasing poverty, HIV/AIDS and prostitution, drug and substance abuse, engagement in extremist activities among the youth.

There is mismatch between education and training, and labour market requirements. A large number of people entering the labour market every year have no skills at all. The skills gap is compounded by weak linkages between the private sector, technical, vocational education and training (TVET) curricula, the lack of adequate teaching infrastructure and the lack of qualified instructors. Result is a mismatch between the supply of and the demand for skills. The country’s economy is not creating enough jobs; 743,000 new jobs were created in 2013 against almost 2 million job seekers and another over one million new entrants into the labour force.

This can be solved by developing the skills and experience of graduates, and by equipping the youth with relevant skills and experience is expected to significantly improve their employability and increase their ability to set up their own business.  

Young people prefer short duration courses that provide them with a means of livelihood, as opposed to the longer two to three year courses, which may have been dictated by the past needs of the industry. Many of them drop out due to lack of funds to pay for the fees.

Therefore, the maximum impact in terms of generation of employment and self-employment can be achieved by developing the skills and experience of graduates, and by strengthening the linkages between TVET and the market. The project intends to equip the youth with relevant skills in short technical courses meant to improve their employability and increase their ability to set up their own business.

This project targets out of school youth and young mothers who for one reason or another are not able to proceed with their education and thus have no other way out of it. Some of the youth could be total orphans, poor families and so lack funds to pay fees, chased from school for one reason or another etc.  A total of 200 youths are targeted to go through the training within a period of 18 months. The age bracket of the target group is from 18-30 years.

The project will equip them with short technical courses which are in high demand locally such as Hair Dressing and Beauty Therapy, Electrical and Solar Installation, Welding and Tailoring and Dress Making. The courses will make them become self employed or become employed thereby making them earn money thereby becoming responsible members of the community who do not depend on their parents/guardians for support. In addition, they will acquire skills on Entrepreneurship, and Financial Literacy to be able to manage their businesses and funds well. Life skills will also be taught to them to help them cope well in the society.  

A large number of youth enter labour market every year but have no relevant skills at all. The skills gap is compounded by weak linkages between the private sector, technical, vocational education and training (TVET) curricula, the lack of adequate teaching infrastructure and the lack of qualified instructors. Result is a mismatch between the supply of and the demand for skills. Empowering youths with short technical courses in partnership with industry players will help solve the problem of youth unemployment as they will become employable or self-employed.

Young people prefer short duration courses that provide them with a means of livelihood, as opposed to the longer two to three year courses, which may have been dictated by the past needs of the industry. Many of them drop out due to lack of funds to pay for the fees. In addition, the project employs more practical works (90%) as opposed to the current system which is about 80% theoretical thus ensuring that more time is spent in doing the real practical work as opposed to theory.

The project is noble in the sense that no notes are given out in classes and teaching method employed has to do with presentations, discussions and demonstrations. This ensures that learners different needs are taken into consideration.

The project can use technology during demonstration to showcase/explain to youths during training the different machines and how they work online. This helps in saving time and money that would have been used to acquire the machine (This is mostly for those which are too expensive to acquire).

This is a project that has been tried and seemed to work. I worked as a consultant where the methodologies above were applied in a project called Masomo Kwa Ajira (Learning for Employment) and at Birunda Teenage Mothers Skills Training Projects.

Below are the links:

Birunda Young Mothers Skills Training Project 

http://hmds.or.ke/projects/pas... 

https://cohecfkenya.org/activi...

Youths who would have undergone through short course technical training in Electrical and Solar Installation, Hair and Beauty Therapy, Welding, Tailoring and Dress Making will also have the opportunity to learn Life Skills, Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy. The result of the training will be:

Increased trainee enrolment in the YPs                        

Improved quality of teaching and learning

Increased support from educational authorities for partner YP(s)

Improved mobilization of stakeholders (staff, Parents Associations, County government(s) and funding Institutions e.g. Constituency Development Fund, (DEF and LATF) in supporting the revitalization of respective YP’s.

Creation of employment and self-employment opportunities

Increased entrepreneurship activities / self-employment in project communities and beyond

Improved livelihood

Informed, self-determined, responsible and competitive girls/young women

Reduced incidences of early pregnancies and marriage

Sensitizing students for HIV and common health matters

Decrease in the use of drugs and drugs abuse among the youth

Improved food security income and nutrition status from increased agricultural enterprises

Reduced rate of crime

Improved prudent use of money

 Youth Polytechnic

5 youth polytechnics partnered with in a year and 10 in 5 years.

Youth: girls and boys

200 youth trained in life skills, entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy and technical courses within a year and 1000 within 5 years.

20 young mothers (teenage mothers) empowered within a year and 200 in 5 years.

Instructors                 

10 instructors will be empowered within a year and 20 within 5 years. 

Boards of Management of Polytechnics       

25 Board of Management members will be empowered within a year and 50 in 5 years.

• Improved social and emotional wellbeing of youths and young mothers who face exploitation and abuse.  This is done through life skills training.
• Impart technical skills and knowledge to youths to be able to start small businesses and become productive members of the society.
• Financial literate youths who can plan for their money accordingly to achieve their desired savings/investments.
• Change of lifestyle and skills acquisition, enabling a transition from begging, commercial sex work, burglary and petty stealing to responsible youths able to enroll and complete vocational training, and to earn decent income.
• Improved hygiene and health/reproductive health awareness, especially to street youth who live carelessly without caring about their health/sexuality and are prone to abuse including sexual abuse.
• Reduced poverty levels, breaking the cycles of poverty they experience by supporting return to vocational training and small grants to start small businesses.  Enabling families to have sustainable future income to prevent their children accessing the streets.
• Improve the way youths are viewed or valued in the community, by supporting individual’s ability to care for themselves and their young ones.
• Introduce short technical courses lasting 3 months as many youths shy away from courses lasting more than a year. This will also make youths think positively about youth polytechnics and thus raise the number of those attending youth polytechnics since many have labelled Youth Polytechnics as a dumping ground for failures.

The problem has always been lack of funds for the project. If funds are available, the project will be the best in the country as more and more youths will be trained and supported to start small businesses thereby reducing cases of insecurity, unemployment, theft and misuse by politicians.

Financial challenge will be solved first through application of grants, call for proposals.

Available resources will be used as follows:

A Youth Polytechnic  possess valid land ownership in its name, have 10 trainees and a Manager who is a qualified instructor before it can be registered. A selected project Youth Polytechnic is therefore a legal and functional entity to work with. Its location in the community provides opportunity for and conveniently brings trainees and instructors together, making it a learning center for the transfer of desired vocational skills. It will enable the project to benefit as many youth as possible during the implementation period.   Also classes, tools for training will be provided here.

 Board of Management is locally constituted management structure entrusted by the community to guide and manage the affairs of a Youth Polytechnic on its behalf and that of the County government. It ensures quality training, develops strategic planning and mobilizes the community and resources for organization development, advises the County government on staffing needs and manages all the affairs of the institution.

Institution Manager ensures the all-round day-to-day functioning of the institution. He/she not only organizes staff and trainees, but more importantly, diligently sees to it that a project being implemented receives due care and attention towards success. He/she provides progressive project implementation reports, thereby updating implementing agencies and other stakeholders about project happenings and achievements being realized on the ground.

We have a team of five.

4 full time staff and 1 volunteer

Michael is an international expert in youth and women empowerment projects. He designed the first project in Kenya "Youth Learning for Employment" (MAKA) which he worked in as a consultant from 2015 to 2020.

My team have also taken part in European Commission projects under Erasmus+ and earned Youth Pass Certificates in different projects.

Partners:

The Financial Awareness Foundation- Financial Literacy Project

Birunda Young Mothers- Technical Skills Training Project

Neema Community Based Organization- Using Art as a tool of communication.

Our organization is not for profit. So we offer services free of charge to communities where we work.

As an organization we depend on donors/funders for support to run our projects.

Mass of unemployed or underemployed youth cannot afford to participate in a long term program. Hence Education for Employment project aims to introduce short term technical programs providing skills for self-employment and employment. Intention is to reduce poverty and unemployment among the target group in poor households in selected communities in Trans-Nzoia County. The overall goal of the program is to enable the youth to be better equipped with skills that enable sustainable livelihoods.

The project applies a market oriented, flexible and low cost approach to skills development training by using already well-established and equipped Youth Polytechnics. The approach is strongly focused on local market opportunities and aims to enable the trainees to immediately generate income out of the skills acquired. Successful trainees will be encouraged to start their own businesses through opportunities to buy tools and equipment subsidized by the project. Links to existing self-employment initiatives which enable vulnerable youth to access micro-finance funding will be made during the training.

A shortened training curriculum is followed to make the vocational training cost effective and affordable for youth (and their families). The training focuses on practical skills and competences which are more likely to lead to self-employment or employment opportunities. Training is delivered on Saturdays and during school holidays when instructors and infrastructure of Youth Polytechnics are available. The funding will enable us to reach out to many youths in the community thereby making our society free from social ills and employment creation.

I would like to have in place board members who have strong networks and who can help with sourcing for funders/donors. They must be people who have wealth of experience and have served at boards of different organizations.

We would like to partner with organizations working along the following pillars:

Education

Health

Agriculture

Peace

Youth and Women Empowerment

Also funding organizations are also welcome for parnership.

The amount will be used to acquire start-up tool-kits after training for refugees to use in starting their businesses so as to become self-employed and become independent providers for their respective families.