The Public Service Commission has launched a program to train 400 mentors and coaches to help interns in the civil service acquire more than mere work experience during their one-year internship.
The coaches will be expected to go beyond work and impart other civil service values and life skills that the interns need to become wholesome workers.
PSC’s Commissioner in charge of the Public Service Internship Program (PSIP), Dr Mary Muyandi, said the mentorship training is a call to those trained to go out of their way to ensure the interns ended up as well rounded workers who could take up the role of steering the country in future.
She added that the youth today are beset by many problems ranging from family issues, hard economic times, mental health and coping with a fast changing world and it will be the responsibility of the coaches to take them under their wing and show them how to navigate round these issues.
Muyandi was delivering a message from the Commission Vice Chair, Charity Kisotu, during the official launch of the training program at the Kenya School of Government, Embu.
She said some 5600 interns have gone through the PSIP since it started three years ago, with another 3000 in the current cohort.
She added that the commission is in the process of recruiting another 3000 to join the program next year saying that they are recruited in a fair process that sees every ward in the country produce an intern.
She said inclusivity has been given priority so that even those living with disability have not been left out.
The commissioner urged those being trained to be open minded about the interns, saying that they two could learn a thing or two from the tech savvy new generation to the betterment of the workplace.
Kisotu thanked the government and partners like ABSA Bank for availing the resources to facilitate the paid internships.
She said that it was disheartening to see so many graduates languishing in unemployment and urged the corporate sector to consider investing some of their CSR resources to equipping the youth with employable skills.
ABSA Bank Director for Customer Network, Peter Mutua, pledged further support to the program, adding that his bank was always willing to assist communities to solve problems.
By Steve Gatheru
