Post Training & Skill Development Programmes

National Apprenticeship Programme

The goal of National Apprenticeship Programme is to improve the employability and earning opportunities of out-of-school youth, through access to apprenticeship programs. The objective of the Programme is to improve the occupational skills and competencies of out-of-school youth. The youth are trained on-the-job through work place learning methodology. They are trained by Master Craft Persons (MCPs). The Programme is currently being piloted at RIVATEX, Moi University. Under this Pilot, the youth will be trained, for a period of three (3) months, in the field of textiles, specifically, Spinning, Weaving, Finishing, Tailoring and Textile engineering.

National Young Innovators Entrepreneurship Programme

The goal of this programme is to empower young talented people with the skills required to develop and transform their inventions and innovations into entrepreneurial products and thereafter linked to partners in the industry ecosystem. The programme is based on the STEP (Students Training on Entrepreneurial Program) model which is a research–based and hands–on training program. The STEP model was developed by the Leuphana University of Leunerburg, Germany, in collaboration with Makerere University School of Business in 2006, and has so far adopted in Kenya. It is an initiative that aims at promoting entrepreneurial/business knowledge, attitude and skills to students and academic staff as an effort towards job creation and poverty eradication. The STEP model comprises of a twelve modular training that has a practical component on developing real enterprises.

The modules include: Opportunity identification, development plan, product description, customer analysis, competitor analysis, industry analysis, company description, business strategy, operations plans, finding starting capital, investment plan, starting capital plan, management of cash, financial plan, book keeping, marketing plan, critical risks and risk management and business plan writing. In addition, ICT will be included in the program. In FY2021/22, the Department trained 400 youth under this programme.

National Volunteer Programme

The National Volunteers Program is a national initiative that is designed to provide volunteership opportunities to university graduates. Through this initiative, the university graduates will be recruited as Volunteer Graduate Assistants (VGA) to work in education and training institutions with the aim of improving access to quality career guidance and counselling services. The Program seeks to provide 3-month volunteership opportunities for university graduates. These university graduates will be recruited as Volunteer Graduate Assistants (VGAs) to assist in improving access to quality career guidance and counselling services in public primary, secondary and VTT institutions. The VGAs will assist in establishing and operationalizing Office of Career Services (OCS) and ensuring that they meet quality standards.

The project addresses itself to the objectives of Vision 2030, the Big Four Agenda, the Medium Term Plan (MTP) III and the National Education Sector Plan (NESP) 2018-2022 which aim at providing adequate and relevantly skilled labour force. This is vital in sustaining Kenya as a newly industrialized middle-income country

Office of Career Services Programme

The State Department for Post Training and Skills Development requires all tertiary educational institutions to establish Office of Career Services. The range of services offered under the Office of Career Services have been broadened to include career orientation, career counselling, work based learning programmes, incubation and innovation programmes, tracer studies, labour market information provision and creation of education/industry linkages. The goal of the OCS is to establish high-quality career development programmes in order produce graduates that are employable and productive and thus bridge the skills mismatch. The number of Office of Career Services established by tertiary educational institutions is illustrated in table 1.

Table 1: Number of Office of Career Services in Tertiary Educational Institutions

	Institution	No. of institutions	No. of institutions with OCS	% of institutions with OCS
1.	Universities	74	20	27
2.	National Polytechnics	11	7	64
3.	Technical Training Institutes	1004	19	2
4.	Technical Vocational Centres	917	9	1
	Total	2006	55	3

National Online Employment Training Programme

This is a new programme that was developed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which unfolded a nationwide shock effect on the labour market. Technologies such as online collaboration tools merged to enable remote working in various jobs that once required person-to-person interactions. New occupations arose due to innovative workarounds for social-distancing restrictions. It thus created a paradigm shift in how work is undertaken. It is in this context, that the Department has developed a training programme to empower the youth with knowledge and skills on accessing and undertaking online employment effectively

National Talent Programme

The goal of this programme is to create a culture of creativity, innovation, curiosity and productive entrepreneurship among out of school youth in Kenya. The aspirations of this programme is to apply Science, Technology and Innovation to enable the youth become innovators and job creators. Under this programme, the youth are provided with opportunities and services to help them acquire scientific, technological and innovative skills using their existing knowledge and experiences. In FY 2019/2020, the State Department for Post Training and Skills Development undertook a pilot programme, in collaboration with the Centre for Mathematics, Science and Technology Education in Africa (CEMASTEA), to create Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) through the application of science, technology and innovation. Under this Pilot, 80 youth from 8 Counties were trained.

National Industry Traineeship Programme

The State Department for Post Training and Skills Development maps industries that are ready to train the youth. Currently, the Department has mapped over 400 industries spread out in 36 Counties. The Department then sources and places the youth in these industries for training. The goal of this programme is to improve the employability and earning opportunities of out-of-school youth, through access to on-the-job training. In FY2020/21, the Department, in collaboration with Generation Kenya, has conducted the Pilot for this programme at Mega Couture EPZ industry, at Kilifi County. Under this Pilot, 300 youth were trained by Mega Couture EPZ industry as Sewing Machine Operators and thereafter employed by the industry.