ipar-idrc regional conference on youth employment, kigali, rwanda, lemigo hotel,kenya's...

Innovative Approaches to Creating

Opportunities and Incorporating the Youth

into East Africa’s Labour Markets

Kenya Country Study,

By

Rosemary Atieno and Winnie Mitullah,

Institute for Development Studies

University of Nairobi

Presented at the High Level Regional Conference on Youth Employment in Kigali 24th -25th November, 2014

University of Nairobi ISO 9001:2008 1 Certified http://www.uonbi.ac.ke

Youth issue occupies a central place in Kenya’s development agenda:

Demographic composition: Youth population represents about one third of the

Kenyan population.

The 2009 population census: about 36 percent of Kenya’s population aged

between 15-35 years; between 15-24 years are estimated to be 21percent

Most of the youths in the country are unemployed, underemployed or underpaid

and fall easily in the category of the working poor.

Out of the currently unemployed working age population, 72 % are under the

age of 30 while 51% are under age of 24.

High youthful population: opportunities for national development, but also

presents development challenges.

Creation of productive and sustainable employment remains one of the

challenges for the country, need for innovative approaches to create employment

opportunities

Introduction


Government of Kenya has initiated a number of policies over the years aimed at

addressing youth unemployment in the country

Policies date back to the early 1990s

Sessional Paper No.2 of 1992 on Small Scale and Jua Kali Enterprises:

Small-scale enterprise sector identified for support to be assisted to "graduate

into the formal sector" and to become a major player in the creation of new jobs

and economic growth.

Focus on training for microenterprises targeting the youth using training

voucher.

Key elements: Access to technical and managerial training, work sites,

involvement of JuaKali in technology innovation, and creation of a positive

enabling environment.

Policy Scenario


Kenya National Youth Policy 2002

Provided a framework for addressing issues affecting young people in Kenya.

Identified unemployment and underemployment among the key issues affecting

the youth

Identified the need to identify and mainstream youth issues in national

development, empowering the youth in order to exploit their potential, and

ways of engaging the youth in the process of economic development.

Kenya National Youth Policy 2007

Embraces holistic integration and inclusion of the youth in Kenya’s development

based on national policies and international policies and conventions

Focuses on employment creation as a strategic area.

Vision 2030

The country’s current development blue print, identifies the central role of the

youth in development

Policy Scenario


Vision 2030

Identifies interventions fundamental for employment creation for the youth.

Capacity building and empowerment to equip the youth to engage in productive

activities,

creating employment opportunities,

Providing the youth with necessary support: financial and market linkages,

Strategies: Training the youth in technical, vocational and entrepreneurial skills,

Creative skills to deal with advances in technology.

Flagship projects targeting the youth: Youth empowerment centres, the

Youth Enterprise Development Fund (YEDF) to provide loans to youth owned

enterprises

The UWEZO fund targeting the youth and women

The 30 % procurement rule for the youth

Policy Scenario


Results based on key informant interviews, survey of 812 youths, and Focus

group discussions

Key informant interviews conducted at national level, while survey and focus

group discussions conducted in three counties selected for the study.

Survey covered youth between 15-35 years old, and in the categories of those in

school, formally employed, unemployed or self employed.

Socio Economic characteristics:

Education achievement:

11.3 % of the respondents had completed primary education.

28 % had completed secondary education

40 % had gone beyond secondary level of education.

58.8% of the respondents had not attained an education level higher than

secondary education.

Results from the study


Results from the study

Mobility of the youth

This scenario reflects the high mobility among the youth.

84 percent of the respondents indicated that their current place

of residence is urban areas, but only 42 percent indicated that

their original place of residence was urban.

Most youth seem to migrate to urban areas.

Live /work in the same area where you grew up

Living in the same area Frequency Percent

Yes 238 29.3

No 574 70.7

Total 812 100.0

Socio-economic characteristics

Occupation Status

Status Frequency Percent

In school 191 23.5

Unemployed 149 18.3

Employed 259 31.9

Self-employed 213 26.2

Total 812 100.00

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

15-19 20-24 25-29 30-35

Per

cen

tag

es

Age Category

Fig 3: Distribution of Activity Status by Age

In School

Unemployed

Employed

Self-employed

Gender distribution: 50 percent, males 50 percent females. 55% in the age group

of 15-19 years.

Youths had different reasons for choosing their field of study:

Job prospects

Prestige/self esteem

Parents’ influence

Easy field of study

Passion

Post schooling plans: Youth had different plans after completing education

Further studies- 50%

Look for employment – 41%

Start own business – 5%

81% had not started looking for a jobs while still in school

The youth in school/training


Post Schooling plans

The youths expect to reach various levels of education

44 percent expect to reach postgraduate level of education,

38 percent expect to achieve a university degree.

About 10 percent expected to achieve some professional training

Combining work with studies

Majority of the youths -81% do not work part time while studying

91% have never stopped their education to work full time and re enter school.

For those who had stopped and decided to rejoin schooling, the reasons for

rejoining were:

Not being able to find a suitable job,

Having earned sufficient money to pay for school

Returned to school because they were not ready to face the world of work as

yet

The youth in school/training


63% males, 37% females., 75% in the 20-29 age category

58 % unemployed for over one year, majority actively looking for emp.

65% of the unemployed youth did not have beyond 12 years of education

Stakeholders: a number of initiatives addressing the youth unemployment

but youth attitude a problem as the youth look for white collar jobs

The youth believe that professional training, university training and

entrepreneurship to start own business are the main ways out of

unemployment

Most of the unemployed youth place high premium on education, upto 85%

planned to continue their education , upto 60% planning to reach university,

This is a mismatch with government policies on youth employment.

Youth perception on addressing unemployment centers on providing the

youth with skills and education, supporting industries to create employment,

giving youth opportunity in employment through affirmative action.

Unemployed Youth


Education attainment

Majority (29%) of the employed youth had completed 12 years of education,

equivalent to form four level of education

13 % had university level, while 34% had post secondary training.

Contractual arrangements, and job satisfaction

48 % not satisfied with contractual arrangements, 47% satisfied with job.

Reasons for satisfaction: job security, flexibility, high wages

Only 24 % had other jobs in addition to their current ones, but only 4% were

because of being satisfied with their current jobs

78% plan to change their jobs, 75% willing to move to get better jobs for

better pay, better career prospects, and working conditions.

Most youth are not willing to accept any job (only 22% are willing)

Important considerations are wages, stability and appropriateness to

education

Youth in Employment


66 % of the youth indicated they planned to continue their education in the

future.

Most of those employed received training for their current jobs by their

employers

62% indicated that the education they received was very useful.

The youth’s awareness of government initiatives on youth employment

A total of 58 percent were aware while 42 percent were not aware.

Among those who were aware, 70 per cent found the initiatives useful.

Only 22 percent of the respondents had participated in the initiatives.

Main reasons for non participation: lack of time, not aware of the procedure,

not interested, does not have the requirements and inability to repay where

there is credit involved

From FGDs, the youth largely do not understand the government t funds

Youth in Employment


The youth view self employment as a temporary transitory

measure

Largely use their own resources to start enterprises

The level of awareness among the government initiatives is

higher among the self employed youth

Most self employed youth were aware of the government

initiatives, but few had participated in them

Reasons for non participation: inability to meet some of the

requirements, not interested, complicated to access, too little

money given, not interested.

Self Employed Youth


Government working through its research agencies to provide incubation

and upgrading of technology for small scale enterprises – multiagency

approach.

Government has initiated innovative approaches through funds directed at

the youth, affirmative action through public procurement and training.

Intervention in youth employment needs to be integrated at education level

to change the attitude of the youth towards different types of employment

and instill skills from early stages.

The youth are flexible and mobile: This is an asset that can be used to

address youth unemployment by making the rural areas attractive and

productive: some youth have ventured into niche production activities in

farming to generate employment examples: rabbit keeping and small scale

horticulture.

Some youth have also ventured into performing arts to earn incomes and

create employment

Innovative Approaches to youth

unemployment


Mismatch in perceptions: The youth place a premium on higher education

The youth irrespective of status aspire to achieve high levels of education and

acquire a profession. Intervene in education

They prefer not to interrupt their studies to get employed .

Most interventions target the youth who have dropped out of school.

Youth attitude towards such interventions is that they are for failures and one

cannot make a career out of it (FGDs)

This spills out as negative attitude by the youth who expect white collar jobs

Grants are no solutions to the unemployment problem, most financial interventions

are seen as grants by the youth and stakeholders

Market access a problem due to limited diversity in activities, standards and quality

requirements

The youth are mobile and flexible: interventions need to take this into account

Need for change in attitude about the youth and view them as a development asset.

Key lessons for intervention


ipar-idrc regional conference on youth employment, kigali, rwanda, lemigo hotel,kenya's...

Presentations & Public Speaking

youth employment

youth population

youth unemployment

national development

kenya national youth

mainstream youth issues

development challenges

employment creation