The Public Service Commission has urged the private sector to provide more graduate internships to equip them with the required skills for the job market.
Mary Muyandi on Tuesday said through internship programmes the graduates will be fully motivated to learn that it does not require them to be employed to chart their own career paths.
She was speaking at the Kenya School of Government in Embu during the launch of the public service internship programme capacity building for mentors and coaches in ministries, state departments and agencies.
Present were Absa Bank director Peter Mutua, PSC managing director Joan Machayo and Kenya School of Government Embu campus director Ann Kang'ethe.
The commissioner challenged private firms to provide more internship positions as the Public Service only cannot handle the increasing number of graduates.
“The government cannot do it alone we must have other players to help give these young people a chance to prove their worth,” she said.
Muyandi said PSC has received over 46,000 applications for internship programmes and they could only accommodate 3,000, a clear indication that the number in need of internships cannot be handled by the government only.
The internship programme is a transformative programme in its third year after its establishment in 2019. A total of 5,600 graduates have successfully gone through one-year internships.
A total of 3,000 interns are currently in the programme and PSC will add 3,000 more in the current financial year.
Muyandi said providing such programmes and enabling a favourable mentorship environment will change the state of hopelessness among the youth who have spent years without securing jobs.
PSC vice chairperson Charity Kisotu, for her part, said the programme is an indication of the government commitment to the youth. She sent her message through Muyandi.
"Public Service Commission is equally committed to the youth and gender and has demonstrated this by prioritising the internship programme in its strategic plan,” she said.
Kisotu said the government has injected Sh1 billion in the current financial year to finance the programme. She, however, requested the government to allocate more money for the programme.
Kisotu said the programme will ensure interns come from all parts of the country and from all groups.
Absa Bank director Peter Mutua said the institution recorded over 4,000 interns for the programme during its first and second years.
He also said the bank aims at reaching about one million youths in the near future.
“In our commitment to this programme, we have injected Sh15 million to provide the much-needed support for its continuity,” Mutua said.
The PSC has partnered with Absa Bank and the Kenya School of Government Embu campus for the programme.
(Edited by Bilha Makokha)
