Seven Seas, a technology firm that delivers software solutions to their clients, has  started  a new program known as Knowledge for Life (K4L). K4L will be part of the Seven Seas Knowledge Transfer Centre (KTC) which has been in existence for 4 years.  The K4L is part of Seven Seas Corporate Social Responsibility and will offer free training for university students. Engineers from the firm offer free training to students over weekends at the centre. The training is offered in various fields including networking essentials, security fundamentals, database fundamentals, storage fundamentals, IP Voice Fundamentals and Unix essentials. Business Applications including Service Oriented Architecture & Client Relationship Management systems will also be offered.

Mike Macharia, CEO at Seven Seas, explains the need for a KTC came about due to the lack of skilled engineers to work on their projects. He acknowledges that the hardest point of a project is finding engineers to work on a project. “In a project that may require as much as 50 engineers, finding the right talent to hire is an uphill task that may take as long as 4 months.”
Mr Macharia attributes this problem to the gap between skills taught to university graduates and skills required by firms like his. "University graduates lack enough skills. Given the rapid advancement and changes in technology solutions, students have often not been exposed to specializations demanded by the industry," he says.
The result is that students are finding it increasingly difficult to be hired and companies spend a significant amount of time and resources providing training, both formal and on the job.
From a large pool of applicants, 60 students  from the University of Nairobi and 60 others from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology have so far gone through the program.
Seven Seas has employed some of the trained graduates while more than 20 others have been employed by telecommunication firms partnering with Seven Seas.
In an effort to meet demand and expand the reach of the aptly titled ‘Knowledge4Life’ program, Seven Seas will be using eLearning solutions to offer training. "With K4life offered through e-learning on a cloud set-up, students reach will be unlimited thus ensuring availability of a wide pool of skilled resources in the market," says Betty Macharia, K4L program director.
Future plans include integration of social media tools and creation of a whole ICT talent pool resulting what Mike Macharia describes as "A future collaborative ecosystem that will enebale tapping of talent. " In addition, Betty Macharia adds that "The future of K4life, apart from training and certification, is to be a networking portal that links IT professionals for worldwide job placement and as a management rating engine where job seekers can upload their credentials, and be vetted by the ICT Corporate sector."