US government through its development agency, USAID and Safaricom Foundation have presided over the graduation of 4,000 Kenyan youth under Generation Kenya.
The public-private program equips youth with new skills to attain employment in high growth sectors. Generation Kenya program is also working in partnership with Technical and Vocational Education and Trainings (TVETs)that the government set to train on technical skills.
“Such programs help our boost the working skills for businesses which majority ofkenyans are employed. The Government will take up the responsibility to enable this and nurture such talents," Trade, Co-operative and Industry CS Peter Munya said.
The youth attend 4-8-weeks of boot camp training in banking, financial sales, sewing machine operation, restaurant services, retail, and consumer goods distribution. “Investing in youth is vital to our mission of promoting self-reliance and resilience among our partner countries, and goals of worldwide stability and prosperity that we all share,” USAID mission director Mark Meassick said.
Currently the program is running at 33 centres cross 20 counties, from one training location in Nairobi in 2015. The new graduates will join a growing alumni network of 13,000 workers. “The debate has always been whether the graduates coming from both the technical and institutions of higher learning are half-baked or if they meet the necessary threshold to be employable. Generation tries to address the existing challenge of entry level skilled labour across different industries,” Generation Kenya CEO Ramakrishnan Hariharan said.
Other partners include McKinsey and Company, and Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA. Speaking during the graduation Teade and industry CS Peter Munya said that the individuals will help in growth of SMEs encompassing majority of youth in the country.
