Kenya gets 100,000 UAE jobs for National Youth Service recruits

The Government is finalising the process of recruiting former National Youth Service (NYS) recruits for jobs outside the country.

This follows an agreement between Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 100,000 jobs openings. The UAE government offered 10,000 slots in the first batch selected in various disciplines.

Monday, Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru said the enrollment is set to take place in a month, where the vetted and successful candidates will go through a refresher course aligned to the skill requirements in the open slots in participating countries.

“They will go through an induction process and in four to five months, they will be posted in the locations,” said Waiguru.

The CS was speaking at a press briefing at Harambee House in Nairobi, where the ministry is hosting a delegation from Ghana on a five-day visit to access Kenya’s NYS model. She said the team was interested in the NYS restructuring system and model for empowerment.

“This is in a spirit of south-to-south technical co-operation that is aimed at sharing best-fit solutions to the common challenges that we face as African countries,” said Waiguru.

The delegation led by Ghana’s newly elected Chief of Staff Julius Debrah will focus on the new NYS 5-point vision, catalytic role of the service in national development and the institutional leadership structure.

It will also focus on the programme pillars which touch on paramilitary training and service regimentation, national service and youth re-socialisation, social transformation, vocational training and enterprise and youth economy.

Growing confidence

Applauding Kenya’s progress in reshaping the face of the service, Debrah said the country was destined for greater progress.

He also assured they would put to practice the lessons they will pick from the visit and come up with a similar structure for Ghana. The delegation’s five-day visit follows a State visit from Ghana President John Dramani Mahama in December last year.

Waiguru said the visit indicates a growing confidence of African countries in Kenya’s public service and transformational agenda.

“South-to-south cooperation is at the heart of our foreign policy and it is therefore a great privilege for us as a country to have an opportunity to share our best practice and also learn from others,” she said.

She added that the visit also gives Kenya an opportunity to learn from other African states and borrow their best practice to improve the service structures.