Skillex: Class to Field

Thousands of graduates are pumped into Kenyan society annually. These possess highly filtered specializations but very few are absorbed into the job market and a large number ends up in totally different areas of responsibilities. The rest add up to the ever ballooning burden of the unemployed. Of interest are the engineering and technical/physical science learners. With a relatively fewer number of tech-oriented jobs and the scarce opportunities in the highly automated industries in the country, the highly skilled graduates make the most victims in the unemployment "guillotine". There is also very little room for self-employment given the cost of machinery. These graduates lead very disappointing lives setting a bad precedence to the future learners of these courses.

 All this happens in a backdrop of challenges in the Kenyan society whose solutions lie in the very fields that these graduates are good at. What lacks is a credible linkage between class and field. Even with online resources, such as DIY projects on YouTube, very few individuals in Kenya take up the challenge to make an impact in their daily lives let alone the society. The fact that these individuals lack the environment to practically fine-tune their ideas in an an out-of class approach of the learnt theories, concepts remain theoretical and never see the light of the day.

For the in-class learners, theories and principles are internalized for the sole purposes of scoring grades and not practice. Practical sessions are both trivialized and out-of-touch with community problems. Instructors use old technology and over-simplified demonstrations due to lack of quality lab items given their prices. Upon graduation, learners are not able to connect in-class knowledge with the societal problems.

Then there are the unskilled but innovative members of the society. Their ideas are never realized since there is zero support for them in a society that uses formal education as a yardstick of credibility. Defeatism soon catch up with them and their talents are lost.

There is so much that human resource in tech-based academic fields can do both in class and out on the ground to enhance the impact of their knowledge unto the society if a little support is given. Skillex seeks to bring technology closer to people by providing hubs where learners can test ideas, deepen knowledge through apprenticeship, hatch ideas out of "seeing" possible solutions in practice and providing learning setups for classwork practice to enable learners appreciate technology better. These hubs are typically areas with modified environments and equipment where participants can put  principles to test.

Academic institutions will pay visits to the hubs when students are required to handle practical aspects of a course. Specialized learning aids and tutors will also be availed to such institutions for demonstrations on request. Any other member of the community will be able to test their ideas within the hubs without any pre-qualifications. Scar KE will develop materials for the mainstream courses in the Kenyan curriculum, say hydraulics, while innovators will show-case abstract pieces of technology, say plastic recycling techniques, within the hub. Site visits to community projects owned by or originating from Skillex will be granted to learners and interested persons.

By so doing, the hubs will support all levels of advancement from learning to application. The hubs will utilize the local materials and try as much as possible to use local dialects in demonstrations. This will capture the minds of the learners better and will resonate with their actual problems and possible homegrown solutions for the same. Young learners will have a glimpse of theoretical principles being applied in elaborate projects to stir up their minds early in life.

Audio-visual content database will be maintained by Scar KE for all hubs around the country where people and institutions may find resourceful concepts being applied to tackle everyday problems. Scar KE will also help protect intellectual property of its vulnerable beneficiaries (young and uneducated) by way of patents. 

The solution targets the unemployed persons in Kenya who are either knowledgeable or talented in technological or technical fields, active learners in these fields and the Kenyan communities whose daily problems will addressed. 

The current state of unemployment in Kenya is so dire among the youth that some experts have termed it a ticking time bomb. So many youths are educated but very few are absorbed into the system. This has led to hopelessness that has sparked suicide among graduates while others get into dangerous activities just to earn a living. The solution will empower these persons to actually utilize their knowledge into what benefits their communities, including themselves, and even sparking a culture of industrialization at a minimal cost. 

The solution will also equip young learners with complementary skills that will see them apply learned principles better in life. They will be treated to a practical guide of tech courses and unlimited access to the resources. Currently, a typical Kenyan Engineering student only get such a glimpse during attachments. Such exposure is limited to visualizing technology but not modify or innovate. It is also short-lived with a limit of three months. The surge of students in the recent years has complicated access to quality attachment in tech firms.

Skillex will also benefit the unfortunate members of the society who did not acquire a good education but have tech ideas for the benefit of the society. This group is disregarded and are easily lost when they lack relevance in the society.

Being products of the Kenyan curriculum, the team is alive to the day-to-day struggles of the graduates in the country. The team also comes from the communities where the problem of huge gaps between theory and practice is widespread. We have seen engineering students ferrying  passengers on motorbikes while others become waiters and waitresses in hotels just to sustain themselves financially.

With this in our minds, we can only relate to the problem that is the unemployment in Kenya. We are here to restore the dignity of the learned youth while benefiting our society technologically and offer motivation to the learners by shaping them towards problem-solving.

Scar KE has developed and tested some materials for this project. The same concept of development will be used in mass production when rolling out the full scale project.

The aim of applying to take advantage of the network and the global platform provided by Solve that is highly admirable. This will enable Skillex to sharpen its approach and provide the much needed resources for the initiative.

Positive criticism and mentorship will enhance our outlook in a big way if the project is selected. Rewards will boost the team's morale if the project wins. Any monetary or non-monetary assistance accorded to project will see the project leap to another level.

Skillex uses locally available materials to solve local problems. This reduces costs of machinery and materials. The solution also promotes peer mentoring and apprenticeship that sparks technology better and faster than the theoretical approach that Kenya largely embraces. This solution targets class learners and out-of-class individuals and also taps into the knowledge of uneducated. Skillex effectively embeds on the Kenyan curriculum as a complementary line of skill acquisition. It is flexible enough to accommodate changes in the coursework Data generated thereof may inform educationists of better models of tech learning.

In the first year, we intend to run a full hub and evaluate the results. By the end of five years, we will have scaled up the projects in at least 10 counties in the Mountain and Nairobi area.

We will evaluate the solution by answering these questions:

I. How many youths are able to graduate and independently able to build their tech careers?

II. Are more young learners willing to carry on with technological courses than before?

III. Are our activities making impacts to our communities?

Our key objective is to reduce overdependence on the formal job market; instead members of the society are encouraged to tackle their daily challenges through their acquired knowledge or talent. Learners will no longer attend lessons for grades only but for the much needed practice to solve technological gaps in their community, and earn a living in the process. Individuals will also value their ideas regardless of their level of education and their socioeconomic status; defeatist mentality is the primary cause of not attempting solutions. Local problems will be addressed by locals using local materials. Finally tech courses will attract more individuals thus sparking a positive wave of community development.

The solution touches virtually all areas of technology as it aims to launch the next generation of innovators. Basically, problems and the kind of passion that a learner possess will inform the kind of support accorded to them. The prototype however covers material science, mechanical engineering, electronics/electrical engineering and basic robotics.

The team has representation of youth, Muslim minorities and Arid area community member. This is to ensure diversity of views and life experiences. Gender parity is also observed in 4:3 male to female ratio; this is significant given the negative attitude of women to technological projects in Kenya.

Skillex will serve individuals and institutions. Individuals may be learners or ordinary community members. Learning institutions like technical institutes, universities and Secondary Schools will form the clientele. The clients will benefit from the servies such as guidance and demonstrations offered within the hubs or at their institutions. Established experts will have the opportunity to pressent their projects in the hubs. Learning institutions will be able to purchase customized learning materials and set-ups for demonstrations at school.

Skillex is both a service and product distribution entity. Services include access of hubs resource, technical guidance and mentorship, talks and counseling to learners. Revenue is generated by sale of items and access fees at the hubs. Both learners and those show-casing their activities at the hubs will pay for the same. External funding will be sourced from donors to purchase the costly pieces of equipment.

The project is yet to be scaled up.