A women’s lobby group is targeting to train more than 500 youth from Kiharu constituency on how to exploit online jobs.
In the programme targeting to reduce unemployment rate in the area, the Centre for Women Empowerment in Technology (CWE-Tech) is partnering with Ajira Digital Program to provide young people with needed skills which will enable them to venture in digital jobs.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the lobby group Dr Judy Makira underscored the need to engage in online jobs saying it has been providing employment to hundreds of young people.
In the programme which will run from August to December this year, Makira stated it will enable the trained youth to start earning livelihoods through digital jobs and also be in a position to train others.
“With shortage of white collar job opportunities, our group opted to train young people from this constituency on how to go about doing online jobs which are easily available. We have people who are making big earnings through online jobs, and instead of young people wasting a lot of time searching for employment, they can engage in doing online jobs,” said Makira during training of the first cohort in Murang’a town.
The CEO, who is also one of the founders of the organisation decried many young people who are indulging into drug abuse after failing to secure employment.
“Those who clear university or college education and miss employment end up being hopeless. With digital works, the young people can get a chance to make money by doing online jobs,” she explained.
The training, she said, will enable the trainees to identify online jobs which are genuine and know how to do them without many constraints.
“This training will enable the young people to select jobs which are ethical and genuine. Not all digital opportunities are good for our young people,” noted the CEO.
A co-founder of the organisation Eunice Owino said with the digital era, many jobs are found online encouraging young people to embrace ICT.
She challenged youth to have passion and interest in doing online jobs as many of them pay good money which has enabled a section of those who have exploited the opportunities to invest in other income generating projects.
A Centre Manager with Ajira Digital Programme based in Mathioya Innovation Hub observed that more young people, especially those who have cleared university education, are slowly embracing digital works.
He said those being trained can go out and train others so as to exploit the opportunities and earn a living.
“Across the country we have many people who make a living by doing online jobs. What one needs is to have the passion and be disciplined not to be swayed away by bad influences which are associated with digital platforms. We encourage those we train to observe ethics and undertake jobs which are genuine,” he added.
By Bernard Munyao
