Youth urged to align skills with market demand

JULIUS NDEGWA-PCO 

Mismatch be tween skills developed and skills demanded in the labour market has been cited as one of the key reasons young people are struggling to find employment opportunities. 

According to the Principal Secretary, State Department for Labour and Skills Development Mr. Shad rack Mwadime the mismatch has been caused by the rapidly changing labour market, technological evolution, globalization and demographic changes resulting in high youth unemployment. 

To address and reverse this, the Principal Secretary challenged youth to embrace entrepreneurship and self-employment instead of relying on white-col lar jobs. 

“There is a deep rooted culture of ‘job seeking’ instead of ‘job creation’ amongst the youth. There is a negative attitude amongst the youth towards entrepreneurship and self-employment. We need to reverse such negative attitude,” says Mr. Mwadime. 

The PS was addressing delegates from the African Union Com mission and various countries including Zambia, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and Nigeria who were at tending the East African Employability Summit held at the KICC in Nairobi. 

Under the theme ‘Building on The Gains: Closing on the Youth Employability Skills Gap in the East African Community’, the summit provided a platform for the youth to discuss and build on good practices to wards addressing the skills gap and un locking employment opportunities for the youth. 

The PS said the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection is committed towards ensuring that skills generated and supplied are aligned to industry demand and that young people are able to find decent work after completion of their education and training. 

He noted that Kenya like most African countries is experiencing a youth bulge that is required to be trans formed into a demo graphic dividend. “The youth bulge is a demographic dividend as long as the young people are employed productively, so that they can contribute towards building a prosperous, secure and self-sustaining economy,” he said. 

Mr. Mwadime said the department has developed, for implementation, several policy frameworks that forge stronger links between the ‘world of skills’ development and ‘world of work.’ 

This he noted, was evident by the employ ability interventions frameworks launched by the Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Dr Alfred Mutua when he officially opened the summit. 

They included the National Skills Development Policy, National Policy Framework on Career Guidance in Kenya, the National Pol icy on Linking Industry to Education, Training and Research, and National Work-based Pol icy. 

The PS appealed for support from the African Union, private sec tor, NGOs, Civil Society and development part ners to tackle the youth unemployment challenges by enhancing the transition of youth to the labour markets.