CIO East Africa - Business Technology Leadership

In a country where unemployment remains a key challenge, at least 160 disadvantaged young women from six informal settlements have a reason to smile, thanks to Samsung and the African Centre for women, Information and Communications Technology (ACWICT).

Each year, an estimated 500,000 young people enter the job market from various institutions of higher learning. However, only 25 percent are lucky to get employment in the formal sector. Of the 25 percent that gain employment in the formal sector, young women (who form a slight majority—51.7 percent) of the youth population take up only 29 percent, mainly due to inequalities in access to education and the impact of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in young women, among other reasons.

It is against this background that ACWICT is implementing a project in collaboration with the International Youth Foundation (IYF) and Samsung Electronics Company Limited, under the Samsung Real Dreams Programme. Launched in December 2008, the Samsung Real Dreams Programme is targeted at African youth to develop their employability, education and entrepreneurship.

The overall goal of the project is to improve the economic prospects of young disadvantaged women, aged 18-35 in Nairobi’s six informal settlments namely Mukuru, Korogocho, Mathare, Kibera, Kangemi and Kawangware. It seeks to improve employment and economic prospects for young women by equipping them with marketable skills for relatively new- level positions in Kenya, including those as IT,  remote support and depot technicians, network professionals and network system administrators; skills on how to provide quality customer service and administrative back-office services in the growing Business Process and Outsourcing (BPO) sub-sector in Kenya. The training takes between two to six months.“Our target this year was to train 1000 underprivileged youth and engage them in employability, educational and entrepreneurship programmes.

The programmes include ICT, BPO, life skills, leadership, career counselling, internship and job placement”,  Patricia King’ori, General Manager, Mobile Division, Samsung East and Central Africa, said during a recent breakfast meeting with employer partner organisations at a Nairobi Hotel. The meeting was to share ACWICT’s experiences, both successes and challenges, in engaging employers, finding information about the local labour market, and identifying internship, volunteer, and job opportunities for young people trained under the Samsung Real Dreams Programme. The meeting also sought input from employers and stakeholders on the skills training being offered through the programme in relation to the labour market. The meeting was hosted under the Samsung Real Dreams Programme and brought together over thirty employer partners from the private sector and representatives from the United States Agency for International Develpoment (USAID), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the IYF.

During the Samsung Real Dreams youth employability conferences held in Nairobi in April and in August in Cape Town by IYF, quality education, job placement, formal skills training and dialogue between employers and educational training institutions were highlighted as critical areas that needed to be addressed.

“We would like to commend ACWICT for its efforts in developing an under-emphasised and under-resourced sector, namely women in ICT. We appreciate their efforts in preparing these young women for employment or entrepreneurship opportunities that put them on an equal, if not better footing, than their privileged counterparts”, said King’ori.

“We would also like to acknowledge the support, inputs and opportunities that have been availed to ACWICT and the beneficiaries of the Samsung Real Dreams Programme either in form of material support, training, internships, employment and even advice on the programme content by various employer partner organisations.”