Lack of internships stifling students’ dreams

By Peter Kamuri

Many students looking for opportunities to harness their skills through industrial attachment and internship are often disappointed due to lack of openings in the job market, or the unwillingness of employers to absorb them.

This emerged in an open forum organised at Nairobi University by Unesco, during a precursor meeting to the main launch of the tenth Education for All Global Monitoring Report, dubbed ‘Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work’.

Students from the university of Nairobi University, Nairobi Aviation School and Mathare Youth Polytechnic said most employers will not absorb students seeking internship and industrial attachment.

Reality check

Another challenge most students seeking internship face is mismatch between what they learn in college and what is found in the real world of work.

“At college, we train using old model vehicles and when we go out there, we are expected to fix vehicles running on automated systems,” said a mechanical engineering student from Mathare Youth Polytechnic.

Employers admit that they cannot absorb all the students seeking a chance for internship.

“One challenge that employers face is that most universities and colleges release their students at the same time, which makes the available chances very competitive. Many trainees are now being absorbed in areas not relevant to their training,” said Lineth Oyugi, the Head of Research and Policy Advocacy at Federation of Kenya Employers.

Zachary Mutonga, the Principal, National Industrial Training Authority, said the weak link between the employers and the training institutions was to blame.He also said many graduates have good papers, but lack the requisite skills due to defective curriculum.

Oyugi challenged the youth to pursue relevant degree programmes at school so as to ensure smooth transition into the workplace.

“Many young people are pursuing irrelevant degree programmes. Others even acquire multiple degrees that do not complement each other. They end up marginalising themselves by going for ‘marginalised’ degrees.”

Decent jobs

Abou Amani, the Unesco Nairobi office Acting Director, noted that many young people around the world, especially the poor countries, are leaving school without the skills they need to thrive in society and find decent jobs.

The Global Monitoring Report notes that in developing countries, 200 million people aged 15 to 24 have not even completed primary school and need alternative pathways to acquire basic skills for employment and prosperity.

As the effects of the economic crisis continue to squeeze societies worldwide, the severe lack of youth skills is more damaging than ever.

The report shows a lower secondary education is the minimum possible qualification for young people to gain the foundation skills they need to find decent jobs.

The second main launch of the report will be held at Hilton Hotel, Nairobi on 16 November.  Pauline Rose, the Unesco Director of the EFA Global Monitoring Office, based in Paris will be in Nairobi for the occasion.