Standard Chartered Bank Kenya has partnered with Light for the World, through InBusiness Initiative in Kenya, to help bridge the gap between young graduates and the work environment through a series of work readiness and technical training schemes.
The one-year pilot program will cost Ksh. 8 Million and will focus on building employability capacity for over 4,000 University students in 2020 across 5 tertiary institutions in the Country. Thses are Kenyatta University, USIU, JKUAT, Zetech University and Multi-Media University. The program will also reach out to over 300 young students with disabilities in a bid to identify barriers to inclusion of more students with disabilities in core courses within the piloted Universities.
With the realization of the serious shortfall in the relevant skills gap, the programme will also aim at delivering career days in the five institutions with companies and organizations called upon to mentor and share their process of recruitment with the students. Additionally, Standard Chartered Bank will engage 30 medium and large companies/employers in the programme to train 50 managers and coaches on how to effectively work with students with disabilities – a step towards nurturing inclusive organizations.
Standard Chartered Bank CEO, Kariuki Ngari, had this to say, “We live in a highly competitive and dynamic world where the work skills required are continuously shifting and the youth are finding it difficult to match what they learn in the classroom with what is needed in the job market. As such, this programme intends to prepare our university graduates through initiatives such as relationships and people management skills, financial literacy and money management, mapping out employment opportunities as well as trends in employment space.”