MP Sofia wants youth to acquire skills for job creation

Young people must acquire skills to allow them thrive in job creation, Ijara Mp Sophia Abdi Noor has said. 

Sophia said on Tuesday that lack of jobs remains a major challenge for the youth and giving them skills is the first step to improving their situation. She spoke when she opened the Ijara Technical and Vocational College.  

“Today every home in this county has five young people who have got an education and who cannot access any source of employment or livelihood. This is a reality and this is one of the things we face every day,” she said.

The lawmaker said young people should change their mindset that the only way to succeed in life is by getting a white-collar job.

 “Our community needs to produce masons, metal workers, water, electrical and mechanical engineers, quantity surveyors, technicians, urban planners.

“Unless our people join these tertiary colleges and acquire such skills, then we will continue relying on people from other parts of the country to do the jobs for us,” she said.

Sophia added that the youth play an important part in society and she will continue investing in the construction and rehabilitation of youth polytechnics.

Sophia said her passion as a leader remains to promote and empower the people she represents. She was accompanied to the event by MPs Abdikarim Osman (Fafi), Abdikadir Omar (Eala) and Nasra Sahal (Nominated).

Sophia said the institution will set the pace for the rest of the technical centres in the country and benefit the community both now and in the future. She said the Kenya Red Cross and her office will fully sponsor all students from Ijara constituency who enrol for the courses offered in the institution.

"The move is to encourage and empower local youth and take full advantage of the opportunity accorded to them by the establishment of the institution," she said. 

Omar said that most of the local youth opt to go to towns to seek for jobs after graduating from secondary school. Instead, he said, they should acquire skills from tertiary colleges and initiate small scale businesses to earn an income.   

During the occasion, the new board of governors of the college was unveiled. They will represent, formulate policies and rally resources for the institution.