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Safaricom targets 1,600 youth for intensive job skills training

The youth will undergo a four to eight-week-long intensive training in sectors such as financial services, retail, hospitality, consumer goods and customer service.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 9 – Safaricom Foundation has partnered with Generation Kenya to equip 1,600 unemployed youth aged 18-35 with intensive job training in Vocational Training Centers across the country.

The training ensures students receive job-ready skills in financial services sales, distributed sales, retail and restaurant services, sewing machine operation and customer service.

The initiative is under the Foundation’s Wezesha programme, which aims to connect people to opportunities by empowering them with proven practical solutions for employment and self-employment.

The Generation Kenya program is funded by USAID and McKinsey & Company. Generation works closely with the Government of Kenya through Technical Vocational Education and Trainings (TVETs), providing these institutions with a best-in-class curriculum and methodology for training young people for employment.

The majority of those who participate in the Generation Kenya program are secondary school leavers who have struggled to find work.

They undergo a four to eight-week-long intensive training in sectors such as financial services, retail, hospitality, consumer goods, customer service and apparel manufacturing.

The trainees are guaranteed an interview with one of the various Generation Kenya employer partners. To date, Generation in Kenya has graduated over 9,000 youth with 88 per cent of them placed into meaningful employment.

“By training young people on employability skills and connecting them with jobs, we are helping solve the skills gap and unemployment problems that exist in our country,” said Ramakhrishnan Hariharan, Generation Kenya’s CEO.

According to a survey by the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), seven million Kenyans are unemployed.

Out of these, 1.4 million have been desperately looking for work.

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The 2018 report also showed that nine in every 10 unemployed Kenyans are 35 years and below, with the largest unemployment rate recorded in the age cohort 20–24, at 19.2 per cent. The partnership addresses this significant challenge.

The partnership will help address the need for sustainable youth employment through an innovative, replicable and rapidly scalable youth employment model for young high school graduates.

“We are very excited about the partnership, as through it we will get to fulfil our objective of transforming lives and building communities as we connect young and disadvantaged youth with job opportunities,” said Sylvia Mulinge, Safaricom Foundation, Trustee.

Safaricom Foundation has committed Sh39 million for the next three years towards the programme

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