The government is planning on consolidating internship programmes for fresh graduates by partnering with private and public organisations, President Ruto has hinted.
This is however subject to consultations among the stakeholders who will come up with a set framework, with the government’s support through incentive provision.
With the internships running for a period of between six and 24 months, Ruto said the government could cater for instance, Sh12,000 in an occasion where the company is paying up to Sh20,000.
He was speaking on Friday during the 2023 KCB 2jiajiri programme graduation ceremony in Nairobi.
The programme, one of the KCB’s foundation initiatives, in collaboration with the German government, seeks to address youth unemployment concerns in the country.
This is through empowering and equipping unemployed and out-of-school youths to grow micro-enterprises by providing them with technical skill training opportunities as well as up-skilling and certifying existing micro-entrepreneurs who wish to move their business from the informal to the formal sector.
It further offers the provision of market and industry linkages.
A total of 3,500 in the construction sector graduated under this year's edition.
Ruto reiterated that coming up with the consolidated internship programme will seek to address the growing concern of institutions releasing fresh graduates into the job market every year, yet majority of them have nowhere to go.
Unemployment crisis hits the youths mostly who form about 80 per cent of the country’s population, according to reports.
Youth Congress, an NGO that provides a platform for young people to articulate their issues, says out of every 10 unemployed Kenyans, seven are young people aged 35 and below.
Data by Statista further says youth unemployment rate in the country saw no significant changes last year in comparison to the previous year.
Nevertheless, data released by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) for the three months period to December last year shows the number of Kenyans without jobs increased to more than 2.97 million.
“Young people below the age of 29, mainly secondary school and college graduates, at about 1.54 million, were the hardest hit by joblessness, underlining the growing crisis of youth unemployment,” the report reads.
The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (KIPPRA) says Kenya’s labour market has remained almost unchanged since 2013.
In its latest economic outlook, it says the population that is hardest hit by unemployment, the youth, is estimated at 38.9 per cent, with approximately 800,000 young people getting into the labour market every year from institutions of higher learning.
Kenya is also currently listed as the country with the largest number of unemployed youths in East Africa, according to World Bank.
Besides the consolidated internship programme to address this crisis, Ruto also said the government through the Ministry of Trade, is in the process of actualising the exportation of Kenya's skilled labour force, especially from the artisanal sector, to other African countries through the African Continental Free Trade Area.
“The zeal and commitment to provide more employment opportunities to our youths is deliberate, first by ensuring we have initiatives that support their upskilling to make them market-fit for jobs,” Ruto said.
“Proper skilling of the youths will also boost our local manufacturing industry, in turn, grow our export market. Currently, we are in talks with the European Union on plans to expand the market access of Kenyan products in their countries.”
