It’s never too late to learn new set of skills

Josphat Mburu Kirubi, 29 [Photo, Paul Kariuki]

After my primary school, I began doing odd jobs like fetching and selling water to homesteads using a bicycle and was later employed as a shopkeeper assistant where I worked for a year.

Owing to my age then, I found it too young to be working when my age mates were balancing books, and resolved to invest in education by enrolling for secondary education with the dream of working in a white collar job.

Somehow, I managed to scrap through education, but I was unable to enroll with a college to learn employable skills owing to financial challenges, which saw the dream fizzling out.

I worked briefly as a gardener with a Catholic parish in Nakuru but after the transfer of the prelate in charge, I moved to working at construction sites as a casual labourer.

I was in that line for two years, but the nature of the job like being redundant for a period of time when a project completed or stalled completely and looking for work all over again, convinced me to venture in something else.

I invested in a shop business and it was doing well until three years back when competition saw five shops popping up in the same place. Earning dipped drastically as the shopkeepers targeted the same customers with similar goods.

With customer stream ever thinning out, I relocated business and decided to learn new set of skills - wiring and interior design - through apprenticeship.

It is not without challenges though; as it is hard to convince some clients I’ve expertise to do the job depending on its contractual nature.

Delay in payments after work is done is a turn down in some instances. However, as I do contract work, I charge 35 per cent of the total cost upfront, but this is usually dependent on work to be done or negotiations with the client.

It is not every day that I’m fortunate to land a contract and I get sub-contracted or hired as an extra in short stint jobs. But at the end of a contract, there’s reason to smile as one’s worth is recognized through good pay.