Acquisition of Skills and Training and Its implications on Employment in Kenya

Acquisition of Skills and Training and Its implications on Employment in Kenya
By
Veronica Onjoro
Mount Kenya University
Abstract
Skills are the attributes that help workers adapt to new jobs,overcome obstacles, develop
productive relationships with their co-workers and supervisors andthrive in the workplace. A
skill mismatch survey carried out by the Federation of KenyaEmployers (FKE) and published
revealed that many corporate bodies are establishing academies to retrain fresh graduates so as to
make them suitable for the roles they are appointed to. In the recentcrisis of rising youth
unemployment, policy makers and researchers suggested the strengthening of vocational training
to facilitate school-to-work transitions and to lower youthunemployment rates (Zimmermann et
al., 2013). Soft skills are character traits, attitudes and behaviors as opposed to technical aptitude
and knowledge. There is a skills gap between graduates and the job. Most graduates are unable to
deliver on their jobs forcing companies especially in the privatesector, to introduce in-house
training before absorbing them. A general finding is that individual’smove to occupations with
similar skill requirements (Gathmann and Schönberg, 2010) andthatskills are closely related to
wages (Poletaev and Robinson, 2008 Research shows that there arebetween 500,000 to 800,000
fresh graduates entering the job market each year. Students shouldexhibit appropriate behavior
in various situations, Identify behaviors that cause conflict alsoexhibit positive self–concept,
describes the concept of community. Respect others, cooperate withothers, acknowledge own
and other’s good efforts, use different perspectives to increaseinnovation and the quality of
work, generate ideas with assistance and are aware of others’feelings and opinions and
appropriately accept constructive feedback. The reality of buildingcapacity for the 21st century
is that we do not know what the work of the future will be like(Darling-Hammond, 2007) or
how technology will influence health and financial issues. The challenge is to prepare students to
think critically, to engage in mental activity, or habits of mind, that“use facts to plan, order, and
work toward an end; seek meaning or explanations; are self-reflective; and use reason to question
claims and make judgments” (Nodding’s, 2008). It may be that ourtask is not only to prepare
students to “fit into the future” but to shape it. There are calls foruniversities to align their
programmes to the competency-based curriculum being rolled out,lest the situation renders our
higher education defunct. Universities need to move away from‘academic spoon-feeding’ and
start paying attention to skills that promote self-drive amongstudents, a key preference by
employers. “If the complex questions of the future are to be determined by human beings making
one choice rather than another, we should educate youths all ofthem to join in the conversation
about those choices and to influence that future” (Meier, 2008). 21
st
century skills include the
globalization of economics; the explosion of scientific andtechnological knowledge; the
increasingly international dimensions of the issues we face i.e. globalwarming and pandemic
diseases; and changing demographic as the major trends that haveresulted in a future world
much different from the one that many of us faced when wegraduated from high school
(Friedman, 2005, Stewart, 2007).
Key words: Kenya, Skills and Training, Education, Employability

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