Skills Gap Menace in Kenya

Kenya is facing a growing skills gap that threatens the nation’s long-term prosperity. There is a widened gap between the emerging needs in the country’s job market and the skills possessed by individuals especially the youth entering the workforce. This is according to a study carried out by the Aga Khan University’s East African Institute. Despite many youths leaving universities or college institutions with the skills required for them to delve into the job market, there seemingly still is a huge gap within the workforce as there are not enough skilled professionals to fill the demand for high-skilled jobs in the country.?

The gap between the job market and the skills possessed by youths or professionals in the country goes to show the emerging need for change in the education sector in our nation. Most universities or colleges equip their students with the hard skills needed for them to succeed in their professions and tend to turn a blind eye to the soft skills, which are crucial in the workforce. Such soft skills include communication skills, leadership, teamwork, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

In a nation where most of us have gone through the 8-4-4 education system, all of us can attest to the education system being mainly focused on academics and examinations thus denying learners the opportunity to tap into their creative potential through technical or vocational subjects for nurturing their creativity. 8-4-4 was all about cramming, passing exams, and going through schooling, unlike the 7-4-2-3 system which was mainly focused on practical skills for learners. The education was too burdensome as there was so much content for the learners to grasp hence schools failed to equip learners with the necessary practical skills.

The emphasis laid by the 8-4-4 system on the many tests and examinations seemed to impose a lot of pressure on a lot of learners as most students dropped out of school for failing to pass their exams and move to the next level thus leaving them with no chance of getting employment. According to a report done by the Business Daily Africa, about 30 percent, or three out of 10 students who enroll in school for Class One in Kenya, fail to sit for the KCPE signifying a high rate of either drop out or repetition of grades.

In addition to that, the students who manage to advance from their secondary to their university level, graduate without acquiring any skills that may be useful in pursuing entrepreneurship and attaining self-reliance. Also, most graduates find it hard to sustain any sustainable employment as they lack the soft skills required to be successful in their career. Getting employment in Kenya has proved to be a huge challenge for youths and young professionals due to corruption and lack of capital to start their own businesses. In addition to that, most Kenyan youths fail to get employment due to lack of required experience by employers.

Despite the availability of skilled labor in the country and qualified professionals in the country, employers still find it hard to rely on certificates from the accredited institutions as those cannot be used to measure an individual’s skill set or actual competencies in their selected profession. This becomes a challenge to individuals because no matter their qualifications, it still becomes hard for them to find a sustainable job and settle in their profession. The existence of the widened skill gap in the job market can be accounted by the inadequate facilities that offer vocational skills. Also, a huge factor contributing to the widening skill gap in Kenya is the inadequate institutions that offer training and mentorship programs for young professionals and graduates.

The skills gap menace in our country can be solved through the development of more specialized facilities that offer training, mentorship, and professional skills development programs for graduates and young professionals. This will ensure that the individual skill competencies match their profession’s standards and skill demands.

The other way that the skills gap problem can be solved is by universities should include soft skills training courses in Communications, leadership, critical thinking, and problem-solving for their students in order to ease their transition from training to employment.

Sharon Njeri??Ngonyo

The writer is an Alumnus of the Advanced Skills to Grow Program

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