Skill Up: Building skills that shape the future of Kenya's Youth

[00:00:09]Kenya, are you ready? Because right now in rooms across the country, there are young people with big dreams. And honestly, the world hasn't quite caught up with them yet. Because what we want to do right now is welcome to welcome you to the nation leadership forum. And today we're talking about something that touches every single household. Future skills, innovation, and opportunities for Kenya's youth. Now, because let's be honest, the jobs our parents trained for, half of them are not even there anymore. And the jobs of tomorrow, some haven't even been invented yet. So, the big question is, how do we prepare a generation for a future we can't fully predict? for us. We've got three brilliant uh minds who are actually going to be live here and of course exchanging with us conversations that are going to bring bring a breath from the corporate world shaping skills programs and uh onto the ground. So to everyone who's uh joined us today, we hope that you're going to have a very robust conversation and if you're out there, we can definitely just jump in conversation because we get to understand the TVET systems and of course from scratch to uh voice bringing us to a global perspective and we have a friend all the way from the German embassy to break that down to us. So this is not just a panel, this is a blueprint. So sit back, lean in and let's get into conversation because Kenya's youth aren't just the future, they are right [music] now. I hope you're great. So, we're going to start with quick introductions. Dr. This is not the first time I'm interacting with you. Sure. But how would you ordinarily introduce yourself?

[00:01:42]>> Well, I have so many hearts and titles, [laughter] but um for purpose of this conversation, Langat is my name. Um the immediate director general TV authority and the founding CEO of the TVET authority. Um I've been in this space for the last 30 years.

[00:02:03]And um currently in relations to this discussion, I also work and advise African Union Development Agency in terms of um skills development and harmonization of [clears throat] TVET in Africa.

[00:02:19]>> Yeah. Thank you.

[00:02:19]>> Federica, I don't know if I pronounced it right, but quick introductions of who you are and what you do for the German embassy.

[00:02:26]>> Yeah, thank you so much and honor uh to have me today. Uh my name is Federric Hemka from the German embassy, deputy head of development corporation. So I'm overseeing our development project here with Kenya that we implement together with the Kenyan government and TBET for example, digitalization, trade uh and so on and so forth.

[00:02:44]>> Welcome, welcome.

[00:02:45]>> Thank you so much.

[00:02:45]>> I hear you love riding Matus to town. Is that is that true?

[00:02:48]>> True. [laughter] >> Mr. Nicholasi from Ambessa Foundation, kindly just talk to us a little bit about yourself.

[00:02:55]>> Thank you so much for the opportunity.

[00:02:57]Thank you Dr. Thank you Federica as fellow panelists. My name is Nicholas Wuli. I work for Safariccom Foundation and Empa Foundation. I've used the long names because these are two distinct foundations >> but serving Kenyans and riding on the same pillars. Mh.

[00:03:14]>> So I am a program manager there and I focus on education where TET is among a key pillar under our launched and newly I mean what we implementing currently under our citizens of the future program TV and youth remain key under the safar agenda. Thank you so much. When you talk about uh skills, why is it important in the job market? And do you think that there's a big gap in how we get to empower uh everyone who's trying to get either into the job market or who's trying to advance in their career having been in the space for a good number of years? Dary, you definitely just uh talked to us. What are some of the gaps that you've seen in terms of skill as uh people join the job market?

[00:03:57]>> Actually, when we talk of skills, um skills are not in isolations. We look at skills and the opportunities.

[00:04:05]>> Mhm.

[00:04:06]>> And in this case, uh we develop skills to uh bridge a gap that will lead an individual to opportunities that are there. And uh these opportunities are generated by the market. Uh the market is where we produce good and services for purposes of um uh serving the humanity. And all our economies are structured in the sense that um we are supposed to be producing goods and services and human capital in this case is a very big factor of production.

[00:04:42]Unlike the general education where we normally treat it as as a social aspect in terms of learning and gaining knowledge for skills it is more than a social aspect. It is actually a factor of production and in many cases skills have been treated as an economic investment. That is why when you put every coin you put into skills development must translate into a function of production and we look at it in terms of uh competitiveness, productivity and how you are able to spar businesses and growth.

[00:05:20]>> Mhm.

[00:05:20]>> Uh so that we are able to satisfy the needs of of of human beings and in this case skills is becoming a very very critical factor of competitiveness. That is why every every every government every institution is actually pushing uh to make sure that we do or we develop the right skills.

[00:05:42]>> Um you've run a very important aspect skilling Africa which is a a call to make sure that uh we develop the right skills among our people. There are three aspects that we normally look at in terms of skills development. One is for personal growth and personal achievement because when you are skilled you have an opportunity to be uh take advantage of what is going to uh come out as in terms of let's say job opportunities and interest. Second is as I mentioned is a factor of uh production. And thirdly and which is very important is for what we call um cohesive and uh stable society because when we empower young people and they are able to um get opportunities and be able to satisfy themsel then we create a cohesive society where everyone is satisfied and be able to see to live together.

[00:06:42]>> Thank you so much Dr. for that insight.

[00:06:43]Frique Kenyans want to be competitive and in in our nature we're competi competitive uh but of course we want to get into the space where we can uh compete globally having in mind that we have uh the digital economy uh what are some of the skills you think we require especially as young people to make sure that we get to be competitive in that because right now we're living in a global village whereby there are some Kenyans who work remotely but they work for a company maybe which is based in the US maybe a company in Berlin and they work even with the time shifts for the different uh time zones for the different uh countries. So what do you think is that gap that we have and what are some of the skills that we need to uh equip the young people with?

[00:07:24]>> Yeah. Yeah. So I think that there are two types of skills that Kenyans need to to compete in in a global economy and I have only been to Kenya for one year so I have this comparison and I think that of course you need the technical skills um in specific um to compete in specific emerging sectors. for example, renewable energy where Kenya is very far ahead. Um also in digital skills of course, coding, AI. So you have these technical skills and really uh future um important economic um sectors. But then of course you have also the soft skills right when it comes to communication and I think also there Kenya has a lot of chances also be being an angophone um English speaking country also. So there's soft skills also when it comes to teamwork, intercultural skills and so on. So I think these are somehow the the skills that you that that Kenyans need but I think that um I think two messages are that first my my impression is that Kenyans are all already very well equipped and I think that there are a lot of chances because their educational level is so high and um Kenyans are you know they speak very well English and they have a lot of skills already you know you're very bold >> I think I think yes and that is also something positive so I do think that Kenyans are very ready to compete um on the global stage. Um right. So I think that is that is very important. But I think when Kenyans think about young people think about what they what skills they should invest into you know they should not >> only look at the external factors of the economy you know because the economic demands are evolving very quickly right and I think still to succeed you have to look at your own talents and your own interests.

[00:09:07]>> I love that you've mentioned talent.

[00:09:09]you're going to be circling back to that that uh Nicholas Empessa Foundation has been known to identify that talent, identify the skills or even startups and small businesses uh to make sure that they get to empower them. Not only that, but we've also seen that you identify spaces and gaps where you uh enable enable these uh young people through funding. What's in the space of TVETS and the kind of work that you're doing on ground? Thank you so much for that question and building on my colleagues sentiments. Yeah, skilling is key for the youth and Empa Foundation has been in this space. We keep learning, we keep growing in it from uh when we started in 2018 with a few youth across the country, slightly over 1,000.

[00:09:55]>> And then we are able to provide them with scholarships to access TVET institutions. And this was basically just to get training and skills that are required for the labor market.

[00:10:07]>> Then uh picked lessons from there. Then we grew a bit in 2022 again when we now scaled that program to affect more youth. So to recruit more youth uh embrace the new models that are coming up and at extended our collaboration and it's a space that we've seen more youth continue to >> get the hunger >> to get access to scholarships. More youth are showing up in and and making us be aware that there are different trades that are not offered in the TVETS but they are demanded in the labor market. So connecting all those pieces and then now getting into the space and continue to expand. So we've worked with various TV institutions and we began with the institutional building where infrastructure is key as a foundation to have the right training spaces to have the right uh uh training workshops, right equipment in the TVET institutions. So we continue to robustly do that across the country with selected tets and then we also advance scholarships to youth who are not able to access education and these youth that we provide scholarships to TVETS are those that are really left behind. It's the only option they have there. They only have uh they don't have the credentials to take them to the next step. But then we come in to fill that gap and enable them to go [snorts] into TVETS and be able to study different trades. The end game of it is them having money in their pocket either through employment or them starting ventures that will finally bring money into their pocket. So with that collaboration with the national government with county governments and with all TV fraternity it's a space that we are intentional to continue supporting the youth in this country. Is it a Nairobi thing or across the country?

[00:12:00]>> Yes. So the foundation's uh investments cut across the 47 counties and in TVET we continue to grow slowly where we are basically currently in Nairobi, Isol and Masabit counties >> but we also partnering with the University of Embu TV Institute where we then draw students from all the 47 counties to access education through scholarships to access TVET skills through scholarships and as we also continue to support uh student I mean the youth in Isol Nairobi and Masabit to access different TET institutions through the partnership model.

[00:12:38]>> I love that you've shared that and that brings me to a misconception that uh and it comes with a lot so you you can correct me if I'm wrong. Uh Dr. in most cases when in the society when you say you studied maybe media or or you became you studying to become a lawyer um there's that importance that you're held in the society with. Okay. Uh people feel like that's an important role. And then now when you say you're in TVET and you've studied plumbing and then it becomes more, oh okay, you're you're a plumber. Okay. And then oh you're an electrician. Oh that's that's nice. But the truth of the matter is every time an employer is looking for someone, the people who've been trained through TVET get the job done. The guys who have been uh in other institutions other than TVET often an employer would spend a lot of time training them. What is it? What is being done within the TVETS to make sure that they have that kind of immediate skill like they are hands-on they can do their work and get the work done with immediiacy as compared to maybe others that have may have to go through a lot of training just to get the job done.

[00:13:44]>> Well, okay. Thank you. That's a very important um view of um the trends that have been uh happening in terms of um changing of careers. But maybe before I respond to that question, one uh important things that my two colleagues have mentioned here about um future skills.

[00:14:05]>> Um we have what we call mega trends in terms of what what inform what are the skills that we require in the future and as a country we are living among the global um community and we really need to understand what is happening so that we create I mean we prepare our young people for opportunities here. and outside and there are four four four critical things that we probably need to understand and maybe that inform this discussion. The mega trends in terms of skills digital uh transformation is so key that um the what the digital transformation has caused in terms of disruption and also creating new opportunities. We really need to understand so that we don't invest on skills that are already being taken over by the digital transformation but we need to invest on skills that the disruption is creating new opportunities. So digital transformation is key. The second one is on green um revolution oral green skills. That is very critical because um one of the things that we do as as as we we try to do a lot of uh development and investment we are talking of sustainability of our planet earth and therefore green technologies are the one that spar and therefore there are lot of skills that are coming across that. The other things and again sometimes when we talk of technical skills technical skills but the entire skills landscape globalization of um uh trade and other things because when we talk of trade we're including industrialization because when we produce products eventually we have to um uh uh I mean trade and sell into different markets.

[00:15:52]So we need to understand the segments of markets that we have globally so that we train our young people for the opportunities. And the finally >> is what we call um demographic and social change.

[00:16:05]>> We are talking of um uh demographic dividend and youth bulge in Africa. We are talking of uh population declining in other parts of the world. So >> when we understand all those things then we'll be able to see the opportunities that are created. Therefore we prepare our young people for these opportunities. As I mentioned earlier on the uh realization of skills is when you you able to link skills and opportunities. If you train have a skills and you are not able to apply those skills it makes no sense. Then coming back to um your question about um people looking at professions um in different aspects. If you qualify go to university, have a degree in whatever field you are look as a very important person in the society. But the what is more important is what really bring dignity in terms of life in what you do and what you earn.

[00:17:10]How do you bring back that dignity?

[00:17:12]Because sometimes in as much as you you really are doing an important job uh within you you went to a TV you're trained and you're skilled and in the even in the market you're earning very good money but the society has made a decision to there's a lot of shame that comes with that you know >> the conversation is changing because one one one very interesting thing and this is what I've seen there quite a number of people who have already finished uh their program in universities they've been looking for the for jobs in the last three four five years >> they haven't gotten any they are coming back to TVET and those are the uh disciples that are actually breaching the good aspects of TVET in the society because >> after changing and coming to do a skill probably within the last I mean a few months you either have a job being employed or you create your job and I and I have one example of um a former students I I knew who went to do a course in university in economics. He was unable to get a job for five years.

[00:18:12]He went back to TVET. He did a course in electrical installation and plumbing and he created this company. As we are talking, this gentleman is already employing close to 70 young people in a big um company that is doing electrical and mechanical services in building. So that's one of the areas that uh bringing this and and and and actually the conversation is changing. I I was privileged to serve uh in COPS for the last 10 years and I remember in 19 I mean 2017 we had about 9 996 individuals who had qualified for various degree program in our universities changing to come and do TVET. That was in 2017. I [clears throat] think later 10 years later that number had changed to over 10,000. I think this year alone we had about 5,000 individuals who actually opted to go for skills. The the thing is and very important is create system and this is what I I I I believe the government has already done to allow you to pursue your career. is what is very important is to be able to be given an opportunity to pursue a career that will be able to give you what you want to do in life and at the same time be given an opportunity that you can still advance.

[00:19:37]It's that career because you can go to a TV institution do a program either in a certificate or a diploma but later on if you want to advance you can go to a university and that is the reason why specific universities like technical universities were created so that you can also give uh opportunity for mobility in terms of career can initially the reason why that negative perceptions was there because it was almost a dead end. you have your diploma and you have nowhere else to go.

[00:20:08]>> Yeah.

[00:20:08]>> Or even if you are to go to uh try to go to university, you are forced to start with first year and uh for the years that you have worked and acquired experiences was not counting anything.

[00:20:20]But I think that has already been addressed by providing a very clear uh qualification framework where depending on uh the experience that you have entry behavior h knowledge that you have already gained you can be assessed and be placed in a specific uh uh program in a specific year so that you don't have to start from first year and you able to gain whatever you want to gain. We'll circle back to that. But real quick before we take a short commercial break, I'd like to just ask you if you're given chance to just talk to a youth right now and tell them the top three skills that they need in for the job market today.

[00:21:00]What would you tell them? One >> digital >> digital skills.

[00:21:04]>> Content creation.

[00:21:06]>> So content creation skills. Yes. And then building construction.

[00:21:09]>> Building construction >> and the green green >> green green jobs >> green jobs. the trades >> the the soft skills as well as I mentioned right interultural skills communication skills and so on.

[00:21:21]>> So >> so do you think that Kenya suffers in any of that space when it comes to matters soft skills or it's a blend of both as compared to maybe Germany?

[00:21:30]>> No no no as I I mean as I said I think Kenyans are already very well equipped and you know they're very ready I think to to have this global competitiveness.

[00:21:38]Um but I think it is still um uh you know a mentality to to to look beyond you know to look what is in front of you and then also look what is maybe further away you know look for um for opportunities that are you know not just in your environment maybe in different sectors maybe in a in a in a different place not where you grow up and I think this is this is this is part of connecting also >> yeah you have the German embassy in Kenya and I'm sure that there's the detail of how we're working together to make sure that the skills are enhanced how best would you u say that the German embassy is also the German government is working uh together with the Kenyan government to make sure that the skills are actually enhanced.

[00:22:14]>> Yeah. Um just be just quickly before I respond to that, I wanted to pick up just quickly on two uh things that um um my colleague here mentioned is that um I think the mega trends what he mentioned and also the um issue of promoting the reputation of TVET, right? I think this is something that uh where Kenya is not alone, right? This is something that we share also in Germany. These mega trends they don't only affect Kenya they affect I think a lot of countries around the globe especially also Europe and and and Germany when we talk about digitalization >> the green we'll take we'll put a pin on that when we come back we'll start with you so that you give us further detail on the same and of course uh tell us about the partnership you're having with the German government to make sure that the young people are getting to benefit from some of the skills that we have to share we take a short commercial break pay some bills on the other half we'll still continue with this conversation uh right Oh, [music] welcome [music] to the nation leadership forum and of course the conversation right now is around future skills, innovation and opportunities for Kenya's youth. My name is Brianna. I go by the Monica most bankable host cuz every time I speak someone gets to pay me for some reason. I'm here with an amazing panel and of course you're talking about how the youth are not the leaders of tomorrow but the leaders of now. So how can we make sure that they get to understand uh their skills how do we make sure that we get to enhance that?

[00:23:44]We have our friends from Empessa Foundation, Nicholas Wuli, we have our friend Frederick I I think I killed it right all the way from German embassy and of course Dari I hope you're doing great Dr. Langat uh who's been in the tit space for a good number of years now before we went on a short commercial break uh you gave us detail and you actually responding to uh adding on to something that Terry had said earlier on. Would you like to just continue in the same breath uh because you you touched on the digital uh economy and how it can actually enhance that and then later you were supposed to add on a second point. So talk to us.

[00:24:18]>> Yes. Um so my point was that um I think that Kenya and Germany we share a lot of transformations a lot of transformations that touch us equally. You know we have a lot of mega trends happening that shape our economy that it also influence the way we have to train young people.

[00:24:33]You know you you were mentioning you the mega trends digitalization for for example also the greening of the economy demographic changes right and this is where we can learn from each other how to adapt skills development. Um and the second point was because um we were talking about the um sometimes rather negative image of TVET compared to university degrees and um my point is that we are sharing the same issues in Germany. So we do have that issues as as well that people think um as Tibets are maybe less important than than university degrees but I think what we see is that um if um you implement this dual TEAT approach where you cooperate very closely with the private sector you show people in TV that there's a link to the employment and the link to the job market and that is I think one part of the solution and we work on this maybe is also um bringing me to your question how we support um how we work together as Kenya and Germany in the sector we work very much on the two dual TVET approach. So that is a policy that we are working on that we launched together with the ministry of education is the dual TV policy um and where we are partner with a lot of um private sector companies. So at the moment um we um um as I said we mostly partner with the Ministry of Education in in TVET um and we um are working with um more than 100 TVET schools across Kenya um cooperating with around 2,000 private companies to implement really this dual TVET appro approach.

[00:26:03]>> Yeah. As you continue with that, has Germany done something special to make sure that they get to incentivize uh these courses that are offered in TVET and even as they get into the job market in that it's more attractive for people to get into those spaces so that not everyone expects to get into university.

[00:26:19]The other day we had coups uh which is trying to just tell people there's scholarships, there's an opportunity that you need to get into uh different spaces, not just uh universities. So what would you like to uh say about that and is Germany doing anything different to make sure that they get to incentivize that space?

[00:26:35]>> I mean we're trying to to to bring our experience that we have with the dual TV approach in in Germany to Kenya not to duplicate it because obviously it's a specific context um um but to work together on that and in in terms of um information and knowledge sharing. So it is about the policy development um but I think it's also about um improving increasing the attractiveness of TVET education you know with state-of-the-art art equipment for example right so we are for example um cooperating to build up centers of excellencies you know where we really have state-of-the-art equipment or digital equipment right um to really um yeah have them really as centers of excellence and um um and by that also by that image is also to improve the the the the reputation of Tibet.

[00:27:21]>> Mhm. Do you think we're lagging behind compared to Germany?

[00:27:24]>> No.

[00:27:25]>> You made an observation. You've already been here for one year. So you can actually give us insight on the same.

[00:27:29]>> Yeah. Yeah. So um no, I don't think it's it's about lacking behind. I think it's just very different contexts, you know, because in in in Kenya, as you all know, and the demographics are a lot different than than in than in Germany. In Germany, we are struggling with an aging population. Why? I think here um the more the the the the challenges to um for many young people um entering the job market um every year and to for them to be absorbed right so we have different challenges so it's not about one country lacking behind it's about different challenges and then but facing same mega trends right and then learning from each other >> and of course there's a lot of disruption with the emergence of new jobs or even faster ways of doing things so maybe you've trained for years to get this skill and then when you get into the job market someone has developed not an AI system that fixes it uh real quick.

[00:28:18]>> And I mean just one last point I think on new skills, right? Kenya's far ahead when it comes to renewable energy use um than Germany, right? So you are apparently better in in um providing these technologies and you need the people to provide these technologies. So I think this is something where it's vice versa. We can learn a lot from Kenya.

[00:28:35]>> So when are you taking us to Germany to teach them and improve their skills as well on on that matter?

[00:28:40]>> Yeah, you should.

[00:28:41]>> I think that's a good conversation. So you give us visas very fast so it can actually come to Germany. Nicholas, I would want you to emphasize on the need for u what is the gap or the space where foundations have that greater responsibility of making sure that they get to uh play in bringing the government, the industry and the TVET colleges uh together because I I see sometimes uh the foundations are there.

[00:29:08]are doing a great job in making sure that there's funding but then you know there's a lot of bring them together is hard government wants to work on its own uh TV colleges want to work on their own industry is already moving faster than anything especially with the global uh uh markets uh we want to compete in the global market we don't care about what's being taught maybe within the TVET institutions and government has also not created an education system whereby uh it's one streamlined uh skill a skill set that you're taught in school that is ready for the market in that maybe the employer is not spending a lot of money in getting to prepare and you know billions are used in cash to make sure that you get to retrain this mind that has been uh in TV college for quite some time and not even ready for the markets.

[00:29:51]So what's what's your breath on that?

[00:29:52]What do you think is the role of uh the foundations and organizations to just make sure that we get to uh bring the the institutions together?

[00:30:01]>> Thank you so much Brian for that question. Before I answer that question, I would just like to also comment on what Dary and Federica have said that in the past few years, we've seen great progress on the platforms and avenues that have been created under TVET >> to the youth. What Federica says about dual training. We seeing that happening and it's quite very practical because we now shift from studying for long periods of time and then we are now gauging you on performance in terms of what you are able to produce in an exam to what you can now do. So those are very great platforms that we seeing transform and from the empa foundation programs that were implementing in the countries counties measured it's actually very practical. what Dr. has said about giving the chance to the youth to advance their education from a low very low level joining TVET to actually now joining a university. Those are platforms that in the past were not there but have come up strongly and just making more youth to go to it. The recognition of prior learning >> that I have the training I do not need to go and start again. So you pick me from where I am then train me and then I'm able to be certified so that globally I can compete with others. So >> that those tremendous uh aspects have really improved the space and we are seeing the space quite grow in terms of youth uptake. Back to your question in terms of how do these organizations come together because individually we're doing a lot. We could be doing little or a lot >> as individual organizations which means we are in a space where we have gaps but each organization is focused on their own and report their own and actually trying to solve the same problem. They sol solve the same problem celebrate their individual impact. I think as conveners the government has laid the platforms for the in terms of policy in terms of the in terms of the structure for TVETS to succeed. Different organizations are also working towards the same. Then the development partners for example empa foundation >> the best we can do is to have a convening and let it not be a convening where we are merely giving blanket speeches but identify the specific activities that we are doing under this space the specific gaps that we've identified so that where foundation where for example empa foundation stops then another organization picks from there so that we have a system from when the youth joins to when they actually get employment because a single organization may not do all but joined together we can do all. So this could be just intentionally having national platforms and bringing stakeholders together. What about going per county and customizing solutions to that particular county who are working in TVET for example >> and of course their needs are unique uh depending on the terrain where they come from the environment and of course we can't assume that we can give blanket solutions to all these different counties for example people who come from uh maybe a county pretty close to the lake the kind of solutions you're trying to give them and you kind of look at the economic activities that are carried there they are quite different so just a word on what you you're actually saying.

[00:33:27]>> Yeah. [clears throat] So for example, coming to Nairobi County and we want to map out how many organizations are here working on the TETS. Let's have a sitting. Let's have a deep conversation and identify the specific areas we are intervening and then together create a system and say this one will stop here.

[00:33:44]This one picks from here to the rest. So it's allocating resources towards that intentionally and planning for it and then just bringing these organizations together. It may be difficult at the beginning but other perspective then we'll have more and more joy.

[00:34:05]>> Mhm.

[00:34:05]>> I love that you shared that and Dr. there's a big uh question that I like you to answer because in most cases uh we've seen that an employer does not trust that a person who has a a TV certificate can do the job far much better or even just at the same level as someone who came from the university.

[00:34:22]How do we bring about that level of trust uh to the employees uh an to an employer and bring that level of trust with their employees in that if you come with a certificate from the TVETS then I'm saying you're good to go as compared to when someone and and you even look at the kind of discrimination that comes with job applications uh they say must be a degree holder and I don't think that's what's being given or being offered at a TV level. So what what would you what's your breath on that?

[00:34:51]Well, I think again as I mentioned, things are changing and shifting. In fact, um when it comes to a job description, they actually want you to have what you can do and not what you possess in terms of the competencies that an individual must be able to do ABCD. And that one is definitely described by the competencies that you learn. But I think uh the mis mistrust came because initially uh training and skills development was done separately between the providers, government and industry separately to an extent that we really don't know >> what you're doing to a point that I'm able to trust and and and that is why >> in a number of occasion the industry >> um complain of retraining putting a lot of resources to retrain these people to really do what they they have to do but um addressing the whole ecosystem is is is something that require a lot of um thinking around it and and I'm happy I think in the last uh few years actually the last one year or so the Kenya is is beginning to put together the acts to make sure that we address those challenges. One of the things that um is going to address this is the ministry of labor developed um national skills development policy >> that is actually giving a framework on how do we approach the skills first.

[00:36:25]>> We must define what are the skills that we require now and in future so that as we put resources to this we know it is going to be at the longlast within the framework. It also uh state the the critical roles played by different players and this is where the industry is becoming very critical in terms of um informing what goes into the curriculum and what needs to be trained in the institution. The industry will be uh responsible for defining what we call occupational standards which really give uh performing criteria of what one is expected when you go to the industry.

[00:37:02]>> Yeah. And once that policy is of course implemented through um enabling legislation and putting in place what we call national skills council that will be largely driven by industry. Then that trust will come in because what is going to go to the curriculum and even in training both the training providers and industry will be doing together including assessment and even certification and in that case we all own to uh the to what including the industry in what you possess and therefore I don't have to question and or really want to know whether I trust or not trust you because we are doing this. I mentioned the trust was because it was done separately.

[00:37:48]>> Second is is um as I mentioned again it's an investment is what we need to identify the opportunities now both locally and outside so that we prepare this individual. Uh my colleague mentioned what we call demographic and social change. We need to understand the pressure that we have in terms of addressing the needs of these young people. We need to know there's another space that is already uh having declining in population and they actually requiring people to go and work there. But you cannot just work there just like that. You must meet the requirement in terms of qualification and the competencies that they require in their industries. The the you mention again um probably what is happening in German and what we have here. As much as we are trying to work together, our economic um environment and landscape is totally different. It's an industrial nation. We are trying to put up we are in formative stages of development where most of our activities are on basic infrastructure development and so forth.

[00:38:59]Mhm.

[00:39:00]>> Um almost 80% of uh those who go through high school in Germany and go to TVET >> go through what they call dual training which is basically training done in industry. When you come to our place as much as we are collaborating with them our economy is largely informal and therefore we have very few formal sectors that will ordinarily support that kind of it.

[00:39:24]>> However, there's something that we have that they don't have. As I mentioned, we are running a lot of um infrastructural development. If we are able to profile the skills that we require in infrastructure development, go to roads, go to boat uh ports, go to dams, go to housing and then structure our training in such a way that we infuse training within this project what we call a project based training. we're able to run almost a similar program like what's happening in Germany but we are using our infrastructural um [snorts] space that we have then we will give practical skills to these young people by the time they are finishing they will be able to even participate in similar projects that will be happening uh later on either here or outside and finally what what tie all these things and that is why Germany is different is having a sustainable financing system >> in Germany. H the the skills development is largely financed by industry. It's actually run by the chamber of commerce.

[00:40:31]>> Mhm.

[00:40:32]>> Here and I know there's a conversation currently going on on how do we fund our tesary education.

[00:40:39]>> Yeah.

[00:40:39]>> It is largely supported by extra which is not sustainable because um as the numbers grow the demand in terms of how much goes for training and of course you know the fiscal space we will get time and actually talk about the funding model for education in Kenya.

[00:40:56]>> Yeah, that's the difference between us and and and Germany.

[00:41:00]>> Yes. So, uh we know we have a greater responsibility and of course uh that is the role of creating opportunities uh for young people. I'm talking about governments coming together with the businesses coming together with uh development u uh either aa partners or institutions to just make sure that we get to create these opportunities because the young people now have the skills but where are the opportunities?

[00:41:24]So what would you like to say about that?

[00:41:26]>> Yeah, I mean as was mentioned before um I think you have different players share having different responsibilities right and responsibilities are are shared. So I think that we should not put too much pressure and too much expectations on the individuals you know because um they are just they're individuals trying to trying to enter the labor market but at the end you have different responsibilities of course with the government to make it as easy as possible for them you know and to have that that equal opportunities um so they have to create the enabling environment but then of course as was mentioned before and this is also the the dual cheddar approach that we have in Germany there's also an responsibility on the industry Right. So I think we also need that mind the shift in mindset also in the industry to invest financially but also invest in new skills right and and employ them. And I think these are the different roles um that that we have.

[00:42:17]>> Yeah I'm being told because of time we can't continue the conversation but I know we'll have a chance to actually do the same. I would like to say a big thank you to Dr. Lagat Frederick. Uh thank you so much for creating time to be here with us and of course Nicholas from [music] Empessa Foundation. Uh that's been our time right here for the nation leadership forum. I hope to get [music] an opportunity to interact with you even better. But right now, stand by for some news.

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