The government through the Ministry of Education has rolled out a programme to train youths with the necessary skills to help them commercialize their talents into gainful ventures.
Education Secretary from the State Department for Post-training and Skills Development (PTSD) Dr. Wanjiru Kariuki said the programme is targeting 50 youths drawn from the 47 counties across the country undergoing training to become champions of talent management in their respective counties.
This, she added, will help bridge the gap in unemployment among the young people in the country through improved productivity as well as networking and information sharing between the youth and the talent industry.
Wanjiru added the government is committed towards ensuring that the programme achieves its intended objectives with the participants expected to demonstrate the ability to identify and develop talents, develop entrepreneurial skills for talent management as well as gain skills on how to brand and market their talent.
Subsequently, Wanjiru called upon the youth to turn into job creators instead of being job seekers in what she termed as a change of perception about being employed, saying that this will help create more jobs for the young people in the country who form 75 per cent of the population.
The youths undergoing the training will also be imparted with skills on Intellectual property rights to protect themselves and their crafts from being exploited, determine appropriate resources for talent management as well as on how to apply collaboration, communication and creativity skills in talent management.
According to Wanjiru, the 2019 Kenya Youth Development Policy report indicated that the youth constitute a huge pool of untapped talent potential in sports and performing arts. She said this informed the decision to come up with the program in order to help the youth earn a living by nurturing their talents.
As part of Kenya’s Vision 2030 Agenda, sports and performing arts have been recognised as an important enabler of sustainable development hence talents need to be nurtured so that they can make an important contribution to economic growth, added Dr. Wanjiru.
She said the youths in the current programme were drawn from previous “Kazi Mtaani” cohorts adding that the government will expand the scope in the next financial year to accommodate more young people including special interests’ groups such as those living with different types of disabilities.
Dr. Meshack Opwora, Director Technical Education (PTSD) on his part said that the trainees will have an opportunity to interact with mentors who have done exemplarily well in their respective fields in order to give them first hand insights on how to positively and gainfully utilize their talents.
Opwora said the State Department for Post-Training and Skills Development is making plans to cascade the program to the sub-county level in order for more youths to be absorbed.
By Calvin Osiemo
