Friday, November 1, 2024 – Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua
is a disappointed man after the recent Qatar job recruitment recorded a low
success rate.
While speaking at the East African
Employability Summit at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre, Mutua
announced an ambitious initiative in a bid to curb the biting issue of youth
unemployment in the country.
He announced a four-point initiative to aid in
improving youth’s chances of getting high-income skill jobs in the country and
abroad.
Mutua announced a 1 million Next Level
Initiative – aimed at connecting a million Kenyans with jobs, and educational and
entrepreneurial opportunities each year.
The former governor also unveiled plans to
launch a virtual platform dubbed ‘Kenya Skilled Hub’ offering youth access to
essential information on skills development and work-based learning.
Further, the CS also emphasised on the
importance of a National Policy linking industry to education. “This
policy is designed to strengthen the alignment between education and the
practical demands of the job market,” he stated.
Finally, Mutua also rolled out the National
Guidelines for Career Guidance and the National Career Guidance Training Manual
– a resource meant to help youth navigate their career path and choose jobs
where they can thrive.
The CS’s latest announcement came barely two
days after he expressed frustration over the high failure rate during a
recruitment exercise by a Qatari company that sought semi-skilled Kenyans in
different positions.
Despite 15,000 Kenyans turning out for
interviews with hopes of securing employment overseas, only 5% qualified for
the 8000 available slots.
According to the Labour CS, the majority of
youth applied for jobs claiming to have skills that they don’t actually
possess.
During the conference on Tuesday, the Labour
CS urged the youth to take up more volunteer roles to sharpen their skills in
the job market.
The Kenyan DAILY POST
