The State Department for Labour and Skills Development through the National Employment Authority (NEA) will launch a recruitment drive for job seekers in Nyeri County on February 3 next year.
Nyeri County NEA Principal Employment Officer Sheila Kiganka says they are currently urging those in possession of both professional and technical skills to log into the authority’s portal and get registered ahead of the planned massive recruitment drive.
The officer told KNA that the government has enumerated a total of 57 skills that form an integral part of the requirements for those wishing to be considered for the jobs.
Some of the opportunities up for grabs include in the fields of nursing, carpentry, driving, plumbing, beauticians, engineering, and teaching, among others.
Kiganka says so far, a total of 1,690 persons from Nyeri County have already registered into the authority’s recruitment portal.
“Currently, the National Employment Authority is running a programme in all the counties in phase 1 of the national job recruitment programme that began in Machakos in coordination with the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection and State Department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
We are registering both job seekers and employers on the National Employment Authority platform. We hope to register many more people and link them to local jobs and also in regulated foreign employment agencies,” said Kiganka on the sidelines of the 6th National Government Development Meeting—Nyeri County Implementation Coordination and Management Committee (NGD-CIMC) held in Nyeri.
To help create awareness among the local populace, the government is working through a multi-agency approach that has roped in both the national and county government actors, such as officers from the Youth Fund, tertiary colleges, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises.
Kiganka says the government hopes to open up many employment openings for Kenyans both locally and internationally, while those who miss out during the planned drive will be considered in subsequent recruitment exercises.
The launch will be held at the Nyeri National Polytechnic grounds.
“We look forward to making a big impact and being in line with Vision 2030 of Kenya, the Economic Pillar. We cannot have an economically empowered society when unemployment rates are high and the work of the National Employment Authority. Registration is free on our portal for those who are seeking vacancies and those who are advertising their vacancies as per the Employment Act 10 of 2007, which mandates us to obtain vacancies for any Kenya,” she added.
The majority of those who will be selected during the selection process will have an opportunity to work in foreign countries that are seeking to recruit personnel into their ever-shrinking human resource pool, especially in technical departments.
Kiganka says they hope to have 90 per cent of those who will be recruited during the exercise fly out of the country to either the UK, US, Germany, Australia, Qatar, Canada, or Saudi Arabia, where opportunities for people with technical fields are in high demand.
By Samuel Maina and Wangari Mwangi
