Led by the Administration Secretary at the State Department for Post Training and Skills Development, an agency under the Ministry of Education in Kenya, Ms Lucy Mulili, the delegation met the top management of the NSS, led by its Deputy Executive Director (Finance and Administration), Dr Gifty Oware-Aboagye, as part of its tour of the country last month.

Discussions between the two parties centred primarily on youth service policies, strategic modules and challenges in implementing the policies. They discussed the role of the government in tackling youth unemployment taking a toll on the youth, with the hope of learning new ways of improving youth service in their country.

Comprehensive approach

Both parties agreed that the comprehensive approach to addressing the concerns of the youth required modules that were integrated with the development of skills that were linked to industry. They also shared ideas and expertise on the best way forward.

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The Kenyan experience

Explaining the operations of the Department of Post Training and Skills Development in Kenya, Ms Mulili said her country was restructuring its youth service programmes to match with the need of the times and, thus needed fresh ideas to comprehensively address it.

She, however, called for collective and integrated solutions to address the needs of the youth since they formed a majority of the African population.

On the first day of the visit, the team was given a brief about the mandate, activities and operations of the scheme. The team, on the second day of the visit, was taken on a tour to some project sites of the scheme such as the Papao Demonstrations Farm and the Nungua Farms where they witnessed the many agricultural projects being undertaken by the scheme such as poultry, rabbitry, piggery and aquaculture. The group also had the opportunity to interact with national service personnel who shared their experiences.

“I am very impressed with the self-supporting programmes of the service in terms of their agricultural sector, catering services, bottled water production, as well as manufacturing and fabrication modules that generate income for the scheme,” Ms Mulili stated.

Dr Oware-Aboagye mentioning specifically the Nation Builders Corps Programme (NABCO), Youth Employment Agency (YEA), the Youth Enterprise Support (YES) and the establishment of the National Youth Authority (NYA) as positive steps initiated by the government, to strategically address the issue of unemployment in the country

The Kenyan experience

Explaining the operations of the Department of Post Training and Skills Development in Kenya, Ms Mulili said her country was restructuring its youth service programmes to match with the need of the times and, thus, needed fresh ideas to comprehensively address it.

She, however, called for collective and integrated solutions to address the needs of the youth since they formed a majority of the African population.