The government through the State Department for Labour and Skills Development is keen to develop a national skills list that will help match available job opportunities abroad with those in the country in order to address unemployment.
Labour PS Shadrack Mwadime said the presidential directive aims to identify training gaps with a view of getting an accurate assessment that will help in deciding the kind of curriculum that is needed.
“We want to know the kind of skills our young people have currently and then do an analysis of the labour market both internationally and the market within. We can only do that analysis if we have taken an inventory of the skills obtained currently so that we get to know their gaps and that will inform a change of the curriculum,” he noted.
He was speaking during his tour of duty in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu County, where he familiarized with the employees in the State Department.
Noting that the unemployment rate in the country is very high, he affirmed that the government is deliberate in ensuring it has substantially reduced it through creating a conducive environment within the economy where investors can put their resources.
The PS mentioned that there are job opportunities that are opening up in Western European countries with an aging population.
“We have an aging population in the Western European nations. They are offering us opportunities for the young people to go and work there. We feel that this is the way to go,” said the PS.
Mwadime debunked the claims of brain drain that the young skilled people would go to settle permanently in those countries, terming them fallacies as he reiterated that they want them on short term contracts of 3-5 years and then come back home and invest.
He revealed that statistics from the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) indicated that diaspora remittances now amount to about 4 billion US dollars, equivalent to Ksh663 billion per year.
The PS hinted on the transfer of technology back to the country as the young people go abroad.
He said the idea the government is implementing is not new as it has happened in other countries and they have been able to transform their economies from third world to first world within a generation.
“We are deliberate about this; we want our young people to go abroad and earn their salaries in foreign money and remit it back. That is why we have a pre-departure training programme to tell them that they are going out there as our frontline soldiers and as they do so we advise them where to invest this money when they come back,” explained the PS.
Mwadime assured Kenyans that the government is keen to fast track the labour migration by establishing a one-stop shop within the ministry headquarters embracing the Huduma Centre concept where all authorities concerned are present to ensure a migrant worker is assisted to process all the required documents in time.
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By Dennis Bett
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