Africa
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Kenya
Firm Encourages Ruto's Government to Use Market Research to Address Skill Gaps
Bahati shalom
Dec 11, 2024
Huawei Kenya Media Director Khadija Mohamed (left) advises creating localized solutions to tackle skill gaps
The government has been advised to create localized solutions to tackle skill gaps in the workforce effectively.
Huawei Kenya Media Director Khadija Mohamed highlighted that many current models have not been successful because they are not customized to the local job market.
Speaking at a private sector dialogue during Kenya's 60th diplomatic anniversary at the Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC), Khadija emphasized the importance of using market research and development to find tailored solutions for Kenya’s youth.
“All we are saying is that solutions that are working in the USA or China are not necessarily going to work here, and there the government must seek more partnerships with the private sector in localising the solutions,” she said.
Khadija explained that the private sector can assist the government by providing skills and training opportunities. These initiatives can help young people gain international exposure and work experience in global organizations.
“For instance at Huawei, we have the ICT academy that offers training to university students who get exposure to the outside world at the end of the programme. We later guide them on how they can come up with solutions tailored for the locality's needs,” she added.
Huawei’s programs include an annual management training initiative that selects 30 university students for various placements. After completing their training, students take an examination, and high performers are either employed by Huawei or recommended to partner organizations.
“In our experience of implementing these two programmes, many students have mastered the theory work. But after training, they are now able to relate with real work-life while leveraging on technology to hasten the way of doing things,” she said.
Centum CEO James Mworia echoed these views, stating that technology plays a vital role in bridging employment gaps, which in turn helps the government meet its tax revenue goals.
“The economic base of a country is the projection of its national power which is driven by the private sector. It is therefore upon the government to come up with policies that enable the private sector to expand its reach,” said Mworia.
Mworia urged the government to expand its focus beyond primary industries by collaborating with the private sector to attract investments and grow markets for economic development.
He also criticized the government for signing international trade agreements without involving the private sector.
“How can we sign trade agreements with other countries and leave out the private sector? what we must understand is that Kenya still has small markets to scale and we must then focus on the EU and US markets which will offer a great opportunity for us to access the global market,” Mworia said.
