Listen to This Article Enhance your reading experience by listening to this article.

If you can sell a holiday to amama mboga, you won’t find yourself unemployed for long.

A report by Aga Khan University says sales and marketing jobs are the most in-demand positions in Kenya followed by technical, financial planning and management, life skills and entrepreneurship.  Employers interviewed expressed facing challenges when searching for the right personnel to work efficiently and productively. 

Human resource managers decried lack of soft skills such as basic communication and presentation, integrity and attitude towards work.  “Employers say the current education system syllabus lacks some core skills such as integrity and communication, hence some institutions have human resource manuals that require new staff to undergo an induction programme and management courses along the way,” said Dr Alex Awiti, Aga Khan University Vice Provost East Africa at the launch of the report last week.

About a quarter of surveyed entry level staff in the formal and informal sector respectively agreed that their skills did not match what employers were looking for, while 67 per cent and 60.2 per cent in the formal and informal sector, respectively, disagreed. This means employers face significant skills gaps.

The study was conducted in 24 counties and interviewed 9,355 people, 7,055 being the youth and 2,300 employers in the formal and informal sectors.

The study dubbed Job Entry-Level Skills: Seizing the Moment, Securing the Future, also established the youth see corruption and lack of experience as the biggest hurdles to jobs. Half of the youth interviewed blame their fate of not finding formal employment on corruption while the other half  cited lack of experience. “This survey established there is a skill gap in what employers are looking for and what the youth are offering,” said Dr Awiti.

Recommendations 

Further, the survey revealed there is a widened gap between the skills possessed by youth entering the workforce and the current and emerging needs in the market.

Reacting to the findings, Nairobi Senator, Johnson Sakaja committed to rally support within government to ensure the recommendations of the survey are implemented. “The soft skills are what employers are looking for, but can’t find. For instance, our system has put down creativity,” he said.

 “We therefore need to focus on how we build these skills and grow our service sector more. We also get reports that the economy is growing, but at the same time jobs are shrinking, making security one of the biggest threats to this country due to frustrated youth,” said Sakaja.

The report recommends the need to build human capital for the future economy; one fuelled by Vision 2030.   “The fastest growing sectors in the economy include wholesale and retail, accommodation and food, financial and insurance, construction and real estate,” the report recommends. 

Soon, jobs that are manual and routine will be replaced by artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Moreover, manufacturing jobs for the future will demand social and emotional skills as well as cognitive capacity, in addition to technology-based skills.

The study also highlights the dire need for collaboration and coordination between employers and training institutions. Public Service department PS,  Julius Korir said the the State  will use the current data and insights in the report to inform policy interventions aimed at addressing youth unemployment.