International Youth Day: Kenyan Youth Equipping Themselves with the Skills Needed to Thrive
“They call us The Conquerors” Joy tells us. That’s the nickname she and other program graduates from the USAID and McKinsey-funded Generation-Kenya program have earned working at the National Bank in Nairobi, Kenya. It’s an appropriate nickname since Joy and her peers have outperformed their other bank colleagues with higher sales results and more positive attitudes. In speaking with Joy, I couldn’t help but be struck by her confidence and assertiveness.
Joy is one of more than 2,000 youth who have secured jobs in Kenya thanks to Generation-Kenya. The workforce development program develops sector-specific training such as in retail and finance integrated with training on positive work behaviors and mindsets in close partnership with employers. It places 98 percent of graduates in jobs — a remarkable feat in a region where the youth unemployment rate is 35 percent. The program’s effectiveness is due in part to its quality assurance approach that collects data in real time to track students’ progress and identify problems as they arise.
Generation-Kenya also calculates the training’s return on investment for employers by measuring reduced recruitment costs and greater staff retention. The program then uses this data to negotiate with employers to make financial contributions to the program. In addition, unlike many donor-funded skills training programs, participating youth receive no stipends or transport costs with the theory that youth supporting their own participation makes them more committed and, as a result, more likely to succeed.
USAID supports innovative workforce models like Generation to find solutions to high unemployment rates among youth in Kenya and throughout the developing world. With a substantial private sector and a relatively well-educated pool of job seekers, Kenya is much better positioned than many African economies. And yet, while economic analyses show large numbers of job vacancies in Kenya, employers are reluctant to hire youth with little work experience or higher education; furthermore, paying bribes to employers or training providers to get a job interview or a job is a common practice.
The employers working with Generation-Kenya typically interview university graduates and hire only 10 percent of those interviewed. Joy and her fellow students don’t fit that demographic. The majority of Generation-Kenya students have only a secondary school degree or pre-university certificate. Yet, the nickname given to Joy and her peers is apropos — employers have made job offers to 65 percent of the Generation-Kenya graduates whom they interviewed. Joy knows firsthand that the skills she learned in Generation-Kenya are paying off. Of her colleagues who did not go through the program she said: ‘We are ahead of them, they cannot compete with us.’
Today the world celebrates International Youth Day. This is the first International Youth Day since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the United Nations in 2015. The SDGs are a set of 17 goals for ending poverty and protecting the planet by 2030. Goal 8 specifically aims to ensure all youth and adults have access to decent employment. When youth like Joy in Kenya — and around the world — get the skills they need to earn an income and contribute to society, we will not only reduce unemployment, but we are better poised to achieve all of the SDGs.
