Facing the challenge of joblessness in Nairobi

“If we do not improve our competitiveness as a country, the immediate result is that we are creating jobs elsewhere.”

These words were spoken by the Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) chairman, Mr Linus Gitahi, while giving his keynote address at the Youth Unemployment and Citizenship Conference held on October 28 at the Strathmore University in Nairobi.

The conference was organised by the Strathmore Governance Centre (SGC). It sought to provide a platform to discuss the findings of a survey on youth unemployment, conducted in Nairobi County early in the year.

The study was part of a larger Youth and Citizenship project. Its objective was to assess the state of youth unemployment in Nairobi and its impact on social integration.

It comprised a random sample of 1000 young citizens aged between 18 and 29, employers from various industries, and some key policy makers.

The survey confirmed the views that have been expressed in the past that a major contributor to the problem of youth unemployment in the country was lack of necessary work skill.

According to the survey, only 37 per cent of the respondents said they received formal training, while 30 per cent said that they received training on the job. About 27 per cent said they relied on their inborn talent.

SOFT SKILLS
Notable among the findings was that most youths didn’t appear to hold hard work as a crucial virtue. It hardly featured in their responses.

This came through during assessment of the common concern about the limited soft skills that the present-day youth is said to display.

The most common perspective by employers is that while many university graduates have technical skills, the lack of soft skills, including value for hard work, fortitude to persevere, communication skills, and commitment, was still predominant.

The study pointed out hard work as a virtue that the youth lacked, thus placing emphasis on the need to inculcate such virtue in the minds of young people early enough.

In fact, none of the respondents indicated hard work as an ingredient for good citizenship.

This has got Doctor Tom Odhiambo, a lecturer at the University of Nairobi, worried, who lists respect for work, especially labour by doing, as one of the prospects for job creation.

The others are being creative to discern the needs of the environment and exploiting the economic advantages of society.

AGRIBUSINESS SECTORS
For instance, it was pointed out at the Strathmore conference that not much seem to have been done to adequately exploit the employment opportunities that abounded in agriculture and agribusiness sectors.

The latter has made it possible for actors to benefit from the production and processing of yields, transport and infrastructure. When further developed, agribusiness presents the chance to create more jobs, given the predominant position of agriculture – the sector that feeds it – in the country.

Agribusiness specialist Mr Peter Kegode spoke of the need for mentoring and coaching of the youth to help them gain the necessary requirements for decent work.

Mr Gitahi, who is also the Group CEO of Nation Media Group, revealed that industry stakeholders were planning to hold an employers and universities summit in 2015, to deliberate further on the youth unemployment issue.

The SGC too, has promised to hold more forums to continue discussing ways of multiplying job opportunities for this population.