18,000 applied for internship slots, says Public Service Commission
By Noah Cheploen, September 4, 2019
@cheploennoah
The Public Service Commission (PSC) received slightly over 18,000 applications from young graduates—including master’s degree holders—who are scrambling for 3,000 internship positions in the civil service.
This emerged as the commission started interviewing 8,000 shortlisted candidates in 16 centres across the country yesterday. Successful candidates will be given a one-year non-renewable contract with a monthly stipend of Sh25,000.
In what appears like killing two birds with one stone, PSC expects to empower the candidates with vital career skills. The group will in turn help with the employment crisis in the civil service, where more than 60,000 workers have hit the retirement age of 60.
Fair exercise
Yesterday, Dr Reuben Chirchir—a senior official at the PSC—told People Daily some of the applicants were struck out because they were overqualified; an indication of rising unemployment in the country.
“We are overwhelmed by the numbers because the positions are few but I want to encourage those who’ll not be lucky this time not to give up because we will have a similar exercise next year,” he said.
“The candidates we have received are very good in their areas and I wish we had more positions; we would have taken all of them,” said Chirchir, who spoke at the Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology during the official launch of the exercise, he described as fair, transparent and professional, adding that shortlisting was automated.
The Public Service Internship Programme (PSIP) was created by PSC this year with the support of the National Assembly, which allocated Sh1 billion to roll out the programme.
The interns will be posted to various stations by the end of this month after Parliament revised PSC’s 2019/20 budget to include the Sh1 billion allocation to facilitate the hiring of interns.
Rachel Wambui, a Business Administration graduate from Dedan Kimathi University of Technology said: “It is a good idea and we thank the government because it is going to empower young graduates with career skills and make them ready for the work place.”
The programme targets students who graduated with first degrees between 2015 and 2019.