Students in higher institutions of learning should enrol for more digital courses because emerging jobs require such skills, Lands CS Zacharia Njeru has said.
Njeru said the digitisation courses it will equip them with the know-how required in the current job market.
The CS said his ministry was already digitising its services and that it will be difficult for those without digital skills to get jobs in the government.
He was speaking during a graduation ceremony for the award of diplomas and certificates to students at the Centre for Mapping of Resources in Nairobi on Friday.
"We are going digital as a ministry and currently we have started digitisation within Nairobi county and in a few months, we will be rolling that programme to the rest of the country and students from this institution will be required, especially in the area of geospatial mapping, because that's where we have been having a challenge," Njeru said.
"Digitisation is one area in which we have been lagging behind because of lack of enough technical staff especially in the area of geo-referencing and since this region is offering that training, I believe very soon this problem is going to be sorted out."
He added that the lands registry, which was about 75 per cent digitised, would require some few issues to be addressed like the area of geo-referencing and they are now committed to make sure that the whole process is done within a very short period of time.
The centre's director general Emmanuel Nkurunzinza said that the occasion was important to them, being their first ever graduation since the institution was established six years ago.
"I thank the young people who took a chance with us as a new institution [and] the government of Kenya by giving us accreditation and finally being able to produce credible students that were able to secure distinctions and other honours from the Kenya National Examinations Council," Nkurunzinza said.
He said the total number of students that graduated was 416 and the number has been growing yearly.
"We do not want to rush into numbers without building our capability to provide the requisite quality, meaning we will grow steadily and now are putting up a hostel which can accommodate more learners," Nkurunzinza said.
(edited by Amol Awuor)
