KCB Foundation Empowers 400 Youth with Vocational Skills and Job Opportunities

400 youth from 20 wards in Elgeyo Marakwet have graduated with technical skills from 13 Vocational Training Centres (VTC) in the county, courtesy of the Mastercard Foundation’s Young Africa Works (YAW) program working with KCB Foundation’s 2Jiajiri programme.

258 of the youth also received business start up toolkits to enable them to kick start their entrepreneurship journey by creating their own employment within the sectors they have been trained on.

This is inline with KCB Foundation’s efforts to catalyse economic growth by tackling youth unemployment at grassroots levels by supporting the creation of small and medium enterprises through youth vocational skills training.

Speaking at the graduation, KCB Foundation Ag. Chief of Party, Bernard Barasa noted that “The graduation today marks a milestone in our efforts to tackle youth unemployment by providing them with technical skills to enable them to create their own jobs. We achieve this by pooling resources with like-minded partners such as MasterCard Foundation and county governments, to enhance youth enterprise development as pathway to self-employment.”

He added that ““By working in partnership with the county government and institutions accredited by the National Industrial Training Authority (NITA) we’re ensuring that the youth have the right technical capacity to take advantage of emerging opportunities at county level. In addition, they will receive business development support from KCB Foundation to enable them to start their own enterprises, should they wish” she added.

On his part, Elgeyo Marakwet County Governor Wisley Rotich said: “At a grassroot level, the role of MSMEs cannot be overlooked, because they spur the economy, provide jobs for our people and attract investment. This is why we have supported KCB’s efforts in providing technical skills training for our youth, to ensure we empower them to be successful entrpreneurs and and give this county the competitive advantage necessary to thrive” he added.

The youth were trained in the 2Jiajiri technical skills training subsectors of carpentry, Electrical, Food technology, Garment making, hairdressing, masonry, motor vehicle mechanics, plumbing, shoe making, welding & Plumbing.

The beneficiaries were drawn from – Tambach, Kapyego, Sambirir, Endo, Embobut/Embulot, Kapsowar, Lelan, Sengwer, Cherang’any/Chebororwa, Moiben/Kuserwo, Arror, Emsoo, Kamariny, Kapchemutwa, Kaptarakwa, Chepkorio, Soy North, Soy South, Kabiemit and Metkei wards.

By :An Nyambura