Kenya strengthens practical path at the centre of youth employment

Kenya is sharpening its approach to youth skills development, with a stronger focus on what happens after training: whether people can demonstrate their competence, gain workplace experience, secure decent work or build viable enterprises.

That shift was at the centre of World Youth Skills Day 2026, marked in Nairobi during the fourth Skill Up Africa Summit. The two-day gathering brought together government institutions, employers, educators, workers’ representatives, development partners and young people under the theme, Skills for a Shared Future.

The discussions reflected a growing consensus that expanding access to education and training is not enough. Kenya must also close the distance between the classroom, the workplace and the changing needs of its economy.

Across the summit and with the support of UN Kenya, the Government presented three policy instruments addressing different parts of that challenge: the National Strategy on Green Skills and Jobs in Kenya, the National Policy on Business Process Outsourcing and the National Strategy for the Transformation of the Informal Economy.

Together, the measures seek to prepare workers for opportunities arising from the green transition, expand access to digital and internationally traded services and strengthen skills and livelihoods within the informal economy, where a large share of Kenyans earn their living.

Cabinet Secretary for Labour and Social Protection Dr Alfred Mutua said training reforms must be accompanied by economic growth, workplace opportunities and closer engagement with employers.

“Jobs are not just created. Industries have to grow and absorb people,” he said.

The Government is expanding industrial attachments, internships, apprenticeships and labour mobility programmes while strengthening links between employers and training institutions. Dr Mutua also called on young people to continue learning as technology changes occupations and alters the skills required in the workplace.

For the education sector, the task goes beyond preparing young people to apply for existing jobs.

Principal Secretary for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Dr Esther Muoria said Kenya’s institutions must increasingly support industrial production, technology development and enterprise creation.

“These skills we are talking about are not just skills to make you an employed person. There should be skills to make you innovators and big entrepreneurs,” she said.

Dr Muoria called for technical institutions that can contribute directly to manufacturing, commercialisation of technology and local production. She challenged young Kenyans to consider not only how they might enter industry, but how they could produce locally some of the goods, components and technologies that the country currently imports.

This would require closer alignment between training programmes and sectors such as manufacturing, affordable housing, agriculture, renewable energy, the digital economy and the blue economy. It would also require institutions to equip graduates with technical competence, creativity, digital skills, professional conduct and the ability to build enterprises.

Employers acknowledged that they carry part of this responsibility. Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Jacqueline Mugo said companies frequently struggle to fill positions even as qualified young people struggle to find work.

According to an FKE survey of about 700 enterprises conducted in 2025, employers reported gaps in technical, digital and interpersonal skills. Nearly 60 per cent of respondents expressed a preference for technically skilled workers, according to the Federation.

“The strongest learning happens when knowledge meets practice,” Ms Mugo said.

Germany’s Ambassador to Kenya Sebastian Groth placed youth skills within a wider economic and social context, arguing that employment opportunities shape young people’s confidence in the future of their country.

“Because if young people do not see a future for themselves, they will not build one for their country,” he said.

He pointed to Kenya-Germany cooperation on technical training, workplace-based learning and safe labour mobility as examples of how partnerships can connect education more directly with industry. He said the aim should be to invest not only in individual training, but also in the institutions and employer partnerships that allow skills to lead to real opportunities

The summit also drew attention to workers whose competence has been acquired outside conventional classrooms.

Across Kenya, people develop valuable skills in workshops, farms, markets, family businesses and informal enterprises. Many remain excluded from better contracts, finance or further education because their competence is not formally recognised.

United Nations Resident Coordinator in Kenya Dr Garry Conille called for qualifications systems that can identify, assess and certify these skills.

“A certificate is not a competence. A graduation is not a job. A training institution is not a labour market,” he said.

Recognition of prior learning could allow experienced workers to obtain credible qualifications without repeating training they have already acquired through years of practice. It could also make their skills more portable across employers, counties and national borders.

For women, young people in underserved counties and workers in the informal economy, accessible certification could open routes into better employment, further training and safer labour mobility.

The next test will be implementation.

Training institutions will need current information on what industries require. Employers will need to provide meaningful apprenticeships rather than brief attachments with little supervision. Qualifications authorities will need assessment systems that are affordable and accessible beyond major towns. Government agencies will also need to track whether trainees move into work or enterprise, rather than measuring progress mainly through enrolment, graduation and the number of policies launched.

Young people must also have a meaningful role in shaping these systems. They should be involved in curriculum reviews, assessment of training programmes and decisions concerning the forms of work and enterprise support intended for them.

The United Nations will support this nationally led agenda through the United Nations Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, including through evidence, international labour standards, policy coordination and partnerships among government, workers, employers and development agencies.

As Dr Conille told participants, the measure of progress will not be how many strategies have been announced. It will be whether an experienced worker gains recognised certification, whether a graduate enters a workplace equipped to contribute and whether a young entrepreneur can turn practical ability into a sustainable livelihood.

“A shared future will not be built for young people,” he said. “It will be built with them.”