As the Kenya government’s internships take shape, young graduates have in them one of the rarest opportunities to prepare for the job market.
Accepting young graduates who graduated not later than 2018, the Public Service Internship Programme aims at empowering young professionals with the much needed practical experience and skills.
Days after announcing opportunities targeting 4,000 interns with a focus on the Affordable Housing programme, the Public Service Commission (PSC) on July 29 issued another notice, making the pipeline busy as the government fires on cylinders to create jobs.
Interested candidates should apply through the Commission’s job portals at www.publicservice.go.ke or www.psckjobs.go.ke by August 18.
Apart from the internships, the government is looking for job opportunities in foreign countries by training technicians and technologists in foreign languages such as German and Mandarin. This has become necessary in Kenya to employ the thousands of new graduates entering the job market every year.
While graduates used to wait for white-collar jobs, the culture is fast changing as the educated, sometimes upto PhD level, look for opportunities in skills, entrepreneurship, and farming.
In the Tuesday notice for Cohort 8 of the programme, PSC chief executive Paul Famba said the programme is part of a broader youth empowerment initiative designed to enhance employability, networking, and entrepreneurship.
Apart from the monthly stipend and certificates at the end of attachment, the interns get an opportunity to showcase talent, technical and leadership abilities, giving them a better chance of securing full-time jobs or longer term contracts with the government or other agencies on secondment or referrals to companies.
The year-long internship sends the graduates to ministries, departments, State agencies, and public universities. This gives the beneficiaries opportunity to shine, soar, and exceed expectations– to use the competence-based education ranking language.
For eligibility, applicants must hold a Bachelor’s degree and be proficient in computer skills.
