The Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA) hosted the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management, Hon. Moses Kuria with his team from the Ministry, on 30^th January 2024 at the KEPSA Offices. They met the team of over 25 KEPSA Members who had pledged to absorb interns under the Kenya Internships and Jobs Initiative (KIJI) programme last year.  The KEPSA team was led by the Executive Director of the KEPSA Foundation, Ms. Gloria Ndekei, who led the technical team of the KIJI programme.   

The primary focus of the breakfast meeting was to discuss a collaboration between Hon. Kuria’s office and KEPSA on absorption and opportunities for graduate interns under the C4J initiative. This initiative is set to be launched by His Excellency the President of Kenya, Dr. William Ruto.

During her address, Ms. Ndekei gave KEPSA CEO’s apologies, after which she took the meeting through an analysis of the Private sector internship programme report matrix. She thanked the members for responding positively and acknowledged the commitment by the members to hire interns. She, however, highlighted that the government was to fast-track incentives and rebates to companies that provided opportunities for the interns.

In his remarks, Hon. Kuria applauded the private sector's efforts in promoting economic growth through such initiatives. He specifically pointed out that Business Membership Organizations (BMOs) and sector corporates like banks, hotels, schools and agricultural companies including listed companies would make valuable contributions by upscaling opportunities for interns in their organizations. Hon. Kuria suggested the need for more engagement forums with the goal of consolidating and reviewing the internship program.

Hon. Kuria urged all stakeholders to actively participate in creating employment by hiring graduates and skill-building, through government National Youth Service (NYS) programmes. He said that it was important to establish a systematic and standard process for hiring internships. He called upon representatives from all sectors to unite in this effort, inviting them to collaborate and contribute to the success of the internship program. He insisted that a one-year internship programme was ideal because it would provide a substantial learning experience to the graduates.

The meeting agreed on the following steps:

1. The Ministry and KEPSA would draw a joint roadmap. for the graduate internship programme C4J.
2. Public Service Commission to share a database of the individuals who applied for positions last year but were not absorbed.
3. The private sector members were requested to provide the number of vacancies for interns in their companies, when they were ready to engage, their skillset and remuneration
4. The Cabinet Secretary requested the private sector to pledge at least 25,000 internship slots to be submitted by the time of the next meeting, which was to go a long way in ensuring that the initiative was successful.
5. The agreement marks the foundation of a structured and coordinated effort under the Coalition for Jobs initiative (C4J)
6. The team was requested to reconvene in 7 days.