Over 20,000 fresh graduates are set to be trained on necessary skills for the job market in Kenya.
This follows the re-launch announcement by Lapid Leaders Africa, a Pan African Movement of young leaders who will re-imagine the possible and be a value-driven generation dedicated to being solution-providers and change-makers across the African Continent.
Speaking during the launch of a five-year strategic plan, Lapid Leaders Africa Founder, Esther Mwaniki says human capital is still one of the biggest challenges faced by Small and Medium-Sized Companies in Kenya.
Ms Mwaniki says the country is still experiencing a huge number of half-baked graduates from learning institutions.
Before the covid pandemic, the job market was already taking a beating from the economic challenges, and this was made worse during the pandemic.
According to an analysis on the short term effects of Covid-19 on employment in Kenya by the Private Enterprise Development in Low-Income Countries (PEDL), employment by private sector firms fell by 16% between March and April.
This happened as the Government of Kenya put in place a range of national containment measures. In contrast, salaries for employees that continued on their job were relatively stable throughout the first half of 2020. Firm-level employment dynamics vary substantially by firm age, size, and sector, with the most severe impact concentrated in the hospitality sector. The main take-away is that there is no one size fits all policy that can address the loss in formal sector jobs due to the vastly different experiences and needs of firms.
Comparing employment levels in April 2020 to the same month in the previous year, we document a decline of 13%. In addition, the overall payroll dropped by 10% between March and April 2020, and by 5% relative to April 2019.
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“We use administrative tax records to explore firm-level employment dynamics up until July 2020 along three dimensions: sector of operation, firm age and firm size. We analyse the tax returns of all private corporations and partnerships filing tax returns for their employees.” Read the analysis by PEDL in part.
According to Ms Mwaniki, latest data indicate that over 80 percent of CEOs in Africa say their biggest challenge has been in human capital while 95 percent of Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) say the right skills is one of the biggest gaps they face.
Some of the skills fresh graduates lack are communication skills, leadership skills and negotiation skills amongst others. Lapid Leaders Africa has so far trained about 600 graduates and has seen great results.
“Our one-year flagship training, equips youth with critical thinking skills, leadership mindsets, entrepreneurship and innovation as well as management and communication skills. Africa is replete with natural resources such as gold, diamonds and bursting with a youthful population. Our goal is to ignite prowess in the next generation of African leaders and shape them into gems that provide solutions to the African continent,” says Ms Mwaniki.
Jeff Aludo, Futurist Founder of The Aludo Group, said that by 2035, Africa will have the largest youth population, this demographic dividend is a source of potential growth. The competency gap in the education sector needs to be addressed.
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“Our education system needs to be changed from just learning hard skills to incorporating competency soft skills like design thinking, communication and confidence in presenting ideas. Lapid is addressing these gaps, which will go a long way in equipping leaders for the workforce,” he added.
On her part, Deputy Vice Chancellor of International Leadership University, Dr Beatrice Njenga, says the University will continue to support the Lapid Leaders Africa initiative in a bid to increase a competent workforce across Africa. “A competent workforce increases productivity of a nation hence more investment is required to address the skills gap is essential,” she urged.
Lapid Alumni, Kelvin Ngunyi, says the course enabled me to sharpen my entrepreneurial prowess, develop critical thinking skills to help me see that I can be a solution to Africa’s Problem. Kelvin is now Founder of Kweza Technologies based in South Africa. Rose Mburu, a beneficiary of the accelerator programme, says that the Lapid course prepared her for the job market.
“I learned proper CV writing and effective communication and was able to secure a job before graduation. As Financial Analyst at KPMG East Africa, I can now work effectively unsupervised and work under pressure,” she said.
