This week has been a beehive of activities in marking World Youth Skills Day which aims at celebrating the strategic importance of equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work, and entrepreneurship. Ajira Digital joined the celebrations in a two-day expo and conference dubbed ‘Skill-Up Africa’ which was organized by the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection in partnership with the Nation Media Group.

In line with the theme for this year which is skilling teachers, trainers, and youth for a transformative future, Ajira Digital today participated in a panel discussion on the topic - Linking Education and Training to the Labour Market- where Dr. Ehud Gachugu, Director, Ajira Digital Program and Youth Employment at KEPSA was among the panelists explaining the role of the private sector in ensuring coherence between the skills available to what the market demands. Also, on the panel were Miranda Pendo, TVET coordinator at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers; Dr. Edwin Tarno, CEO, Kenya School of TVET; Dr. Kipkirui Langat, Director General at the Technical and Vocational Training Authority; and Gideon Murenga, Senior TVET and Labour Markets Advisor - Youth Employment and Vocational Training at GIZ.

The session demonstrated the importance of coordination between institutions of learning, policymakers, graduates, and businesses to ensure that the skills available are aligned with the market requirements. Here are some insights drawn from the conversation:

“The private sector is the biggest consumer of the skills and therefore involving them as stakeholders is vital. Hence, with the increasing complexity of the business operating environment, there is a need for highly globally competitive skills and talents. One way to do this is to be always ahead in our thinking on the future of work where digital skills are pertinent. Ajira greatly contributes to the future of work as we are able to expose the graduates to the trends that are now relevant for businesses at a global scale.” – Dr. Ehud Gachugu, Director Ajira Digital Program and Youth Employment at KEPSA.

“Training institutions exist to meet the needs of the industry and must be involved as experts in solving the challenge of industry-skills mismatch. The mismatch could be both an issue emanating from the students or the trainers. A recent survey by Kenya School of TVET indicated that 74% of students have some exposure to practical work experience. There is a big need to encourage trainers to also concurrently or consequently offer practical lessons to their trainees to ensure they get a sense of what the industries are looking out for in terms of skills.” - Dr. Edwin Tarno, CEO, Kenya School of TVET.

“The digital space is creating many more jobs either directly or indirectly. Hence, it is up to all of us as stakeholders to check on where we can see opportunities and take advantage of these emergent chances. These opportunities could apply either the very basic skills such as data entry and virtual assistance to the very advanced and technical skills like Machine learning, software development, and Artificial Intelligence skills among others. ”- Dr. Kipkirui Langat, Director General at the Technical and Vocational Training Authority.

“Dual TVET provides training at a theoretical level in TVETs then offers work experience in an actual industry. Once the graduates are sufficiently trained, they can demonstrate value proposition to the industries. It happens in other countries like in German where the cars production rely on skills from TVETs.There are a lot of untapped opportunities in TVET, hence importance of these skills” – Gideon Murenga, Senior TVET and Labour Markets Advisor - Youth Employment and Vocational Training at GIZ.

“The Kenya Association of Manufacturers engage with TVETs and industry experts to check what should be included in the curricula, which we term as – Occupational Standards. The Association also does a deep dive into each sector to understand what jobs are available under each of those opportunities likely to emerge in the future. Then there are also work-based learning and internships provided.” - Miranda Pendo, TVET coordinator at the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.

This very engaging conversation also checked on the next steps that the country should take where it was concluded that there is a need to consolidate all the lessons learned from the small pilots rolled out, then these lessons can serve as a roadmap to the successful implementation of industry-skills matching for the benefit of the businesses, young people offering skills and the economy.