The County Government of Nyeri has entered into an agreement with CAP Youth Empowerment Institute (CAP-YEI) to provide mentorship to the local youth in technical and vocational training centres on entrepreneurship and business management.
Through the partnership, the trained youth will also benefit from pre and post-job placement counseling to help them adjust to the work environment.
Speaking during a meeting with CAP-YEI directors, Governor Mutahi Kahiga said that 39 TVETs would benefit from the collaboration among them 15 centres which were recently revived by the county.
Kahiga noted that one of the ways of spurring employment opportunities was not only availing affordable capital for youth, but also encouraging the youth to create job opportunities through start-ups.
“Training youth outside the normal curriculum has become one of the best ways to curb unemployment by teaching them how to create and manage small businesses.
They will not only rely on employment but rather focus on self-employment. In addition to training, we are exploring areas of collaboration which also include market assessments to establish human resource gaps which will help the youth benefit from target specific job placements,” said the governor.
Currently, CAP YEI is also running a four-year pilot mentorship project for adolescent girls between the ages of 13-18 in the county.
The programme which is being implemented by the county department for Youth, Gender and Social Services is aimed at encouraging girls to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses.
On his part, CAP-YEI Executive Director, Ndung’u Kahihu noted that the new collaboration would be a continuation of the second phase of the programme, which started in 2016 targeting to reach out to 39,000 youth in various Vocational Training Centres in Kenya
Kahihu noted that in 2020, the organization had partnered with Othaya Technical Training Institute, where 1,300 students were trained on entrepreneurship and are currently engaged in gainful opportunities.
He also said that CAP-YEI together with the county’s department of Youth, Gender and Social services were also working on the finer details of rolling out a pilot training program for young women in agriculture.
Through the initiative, 25 women form the 47 counties will benefit from the training. “We are planning to launch a pilot program to train young women in climate-smart agriculture. We have already established a learning institution in Nyahururu, where 25 women from each of the 47 counties will be trained on how to manage micro-businesses in Agriculture,” said Kahihu.
By Wangari Mwangi and Rodah Ndirangu
