ICT and Digital Economy CS Eliud Owalo on Thursday launched the Virtual Desktop Infrastructure lab at Kinango Technical and Vocational Training College in Kwale County. 

Owalo said the government's practical commitment to equipping the youth with digital skills for cyberspace-based employment and self-reliance continues.

The government through the Ministry will run the program for the youth under the Information and Communication Authority (ICTA), and the Konza Technopolis, in collaboration with the TVET Authority.

Owalo said the program has set aside 23,000 virtual desktops for TVET institutions across the country.

He noted that by the end of March, they had established and operationalised 100 labs across the nation. 

"We are donating 100 virtual desktop computers to every TVET," he added.

The CS said the primary objective of the institutions, dubbed Jitume Labs, is to train a youthful public workforce that initiates efficient and effective service delivery in different disciplines online.

He said the government was helping trainees to secure these jobs while still in training.

"We have already secured 10,000 virtual jobs for our youth, under this program. We aim to create one million jobs over the next two years," Owalo added. 

He said he was encouraged by the enthusiasm among the youth already enrolled on the program.

Present during the event were PS for ICT John Tanui, Director General TVETA Kipkirui Langat, Chairman ICTA Sylvanus Maritim, and Konza Ag. CEO John Okwirry, and ICTA CEO Stanley Kamanguya.

Others were Principal Kinango TVC Maria Kimonyi, Kinango TVC Board member Joseph Malenchwanzi, Andrew Mwangi from Moringa School and Robin Njiru from Amazon Web Services.

Other Jitume partners are Lish AI Labs, Thunderbird School of Global Management and Arizona State University.

Owalo invited partners for the Jitume Labs program. 

"We are open to more partners in this initiative," he said.