Those aged below thirty years today have the
highest levels of education of any generation in Kenya’s history. However, less
than 7 percent of nearly one million young adults who enter the job market can
find work in the formal economy.
Unemployment, especially among our young
compatriots, is the defining socio-economic and political challenge of time. It
is ironic that we are confronted with unprecedented levels of unemployment despite
impressive GDP growth over the last decade. We are witnessing a steep rise in
long-term unemployment among young adults. Moreover, a growing number of young
college leavers are dropping off the job market to start off on their own, as
entrepreneurs.
Two weeks ago Industrialization Secretary
Adan Mohamed said the government had no record of new jobs created. He observed
that 8 out 10 jobs were created by small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and
that the government was working to provide an enabling environment for SMEs to
create jobs. Mr. Mohamed recognizes that the government has not created jobs
and it is not the purpose of government to create jobs.
Our education system does very little to
prepare graduates for the work place. Our exam centric education is obsessed
with curriculum and pays little attention to the attributes employers care
about, such as critical thinking, problem solving, analytical reasoning,
creativity, communication and teamwork.
We must review our curriculum, from
Kindergarten to graduate programs, to respond to the needs of the 21st
century. In his book, A Whole New Mind,
Daniel Pink imagines a post knowledge-based economy where the economy demands
workers who are adept in the attributes associated with the right brain:
design; story; symphony, empathy, play and meaning.
The fitness of our education system must be
judged by its capacity educate for an unknown future. Hence, we must pay more
attention to helping students learn how to learn and critically engage with
data and knowledge. This implies a radical departure from our didactic approach
to education, which privileges learning by rote and mindless regurgitation.
Such an approach would challenge the professors’ hubris of omniscience and ignite
stiff resistance from the professoriate.
Basic education must focus on numeracy and
literacy as well as nurturing creativity, teamwork, ethics, pluralism and citizenship.
While the university must not be degraded to a vocational facility, it must pay
attention to the vocational needs of graduates. It is possible to produce
work-ready graduates with sufficient intellectual depth and inclination to a
life of the mind.
There is need for partnership between
tertiary institutions and industry to enhance skill formation and employability
of graduates. Co-operative education programs can help achieve this. Co-operative
education is a structured way of learning, which combines in-class learning
with periods of work. Students gain work experience in their field of study,
while earning credits that count toward their graduation. Such programs could
also foster closer collaboration between industry and the academy, ensuring
that degree programs are relevant to the labor market.
Agriculture can create millions of jobs. We
need a movement for farmers of the future to interest and attract youth across
the country to farming. Working with tertiary education, banks, agribusiness
and institutions like Amiran Kenya to provide credit, know-how, modern
technology and markets we can make agriculture profitable, sustainable and
attractive to the youth.
We must align education and skills to the needs
of the economy. The boom in construction sector will be hampered by the chronic
shortage of technicians and craftsmen. The unprecedented expansion of higher
education is constrained by inadequate supply of academics. The public sector
faces an acute shortage of doctors nurses, teachers and policemen. Moreover, we
do not have enough qualified engineers and technicians to drive our ambitious
industrialization goals.
We can take
immediate measures to get young people into employment. Here is where we could to
start:
1. Provide subsidies or tax incentives, tied to
training and skill formation, to companies that hire young job seekers;
2. National and county governments should
create temporary positions for young job seekers with little or no work market
experience in those sectors to provide unemployed youth with some initial job experience.
Even under optimistic growth scenarios it
will take many years to provide large numbers of high quality jobs for the
youth. Ultimately, we must to make less protracted the transition from school
to work and accelerate job creation. The time to begin is now.
No comments:
Post a Comment