Students from two Kenyan agricultural colleges working on a fruit farm in the United Kingdom say their classroom training directly shaped their performance abroad, as they called on the government to invest more in practical education and local agro-processing to create jobs at home.
The trainees, drawn from the Kenya School of Agriculture (KSA) and Bukura Agricultural College (BAC), are attached to Charlton’s Farm, a fruit packaging company in the UK, under the Government of Kenya and the United Kingdom Seasonal Workers Scheme (SWS). They met Agriculture Cabinet Secretary (CS) Mutahi Kagwe during his visit to London, where the session offered a candid picture of what Kenyan agricultural college graduates can achieve in a competitive international environment.
KSA is among the few agricultural training institutions in Kenya and Africa participating in the scheme, which the government has positioned as a youth employment and skills transfer initiative under the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA). Since the programme launched in 2023, KSA alone has dispatched 392 students to UK farms.
Bukura Agricultural College, which the scheme selected as one of its main suppliers of graduates, enrols participants in a six-month work placement designed to earn them income while building their competencies in agricultural production.
Students told the CS that their strong command of English, technical discipline and professional conduct, qualities they attributed to their training in Kenya, set them apart and earned some of them promotions and improved pay. They identified time management, quality control, hygiene standards and hands-on exposure to advanced technology as the most educationally valuable aspects of the placement.
The scheme is officially framed as an industrial attachment that combines hands-on training in modern agricultural techniques, competitive remuneration in sterling pounds, cultural exchange and professional development.
The Kenya High Commission in London opened the session with a reaffirmation of support for the students, while the KSA Director commended them for attending on their day off and urged them to represent their institutions and country with distinction.
CS Kagwe told the students they were ambassadors of Kenya and that the programme’s continuity depended entirely on the discipline and reputation they built while abroad. He encouraged them to return home with practical skills and apply them to transform local production systems.
The students, however, pushed the conversation toward structural change. They challenged government leaders to invest in local fruit processing and value addition industries, noting that the packaging, quality control and logistics skills they were mastering in the UK could be taught and applied in Kenya, generating employment without requiring young people to travel abroad. Officials present expressed optimism that such investment was achievable and could, in time, reduce the pressure on agricultural college graduates to seek opportunities overseas.
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The programme is described by the government as a strategic pillar of a broader agenda focused on youth employment creation, technology and skills transfer, and sustainable agribusiness development, with participants expected to return and transform Kenya’s farming landscape.
By Benedict Aoya
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