In order to cope with the challenges of the rapidly changing labour market, St. Kizito VTI is planning the following steps in the short/medium term.

A) The enhancement of the role of vocational training in fighting poverty

Two major objectives have been identified:

1. the expansion of opportunities for young people to join vocational training and to boost its quality, drawing it closer to the needs of the labour market (see the project: "fight poverty by enhancing youth through vocational training").
2. the realisation of new courses.
   In this area the Institute is carefully looking at the market's needs of new trained human resources, needs that are fluorishing from the quick changes of world of work, especially after the introduction of new technologies (Internet, communication systems, etc.). In this way St. Kizito will be able to organize new courses to train young people according to the actual job's opportunities.

B) The strengthening of the partnership with COWA: introduction to work and promotion of micro enterprise creation

In partnership with the local non profit organization, Companionship of Works Association (COWA) St. Kizito VTI has recently embarked on a program to assist its graduates to find employment and also to offer them the needed skills towards self-employment. The intention has been to implement and boost appropriate activities including provision of relevant information, communication skills, permanent contacts with Human Resource Departments, entrepreunership training, technical assistance, and financial services. More than one hundred youths have already benefited from the services (see the project "Job orientation and micro enterprise development services (JOMEDS) for youth of the outskirts of Nairobi".

PROJECT 1 TITLE:

FIGHT POVERTY BY ENHANCING YOUTH THROUGH VOCATIONAL TRAINING

COUNTRY: KENYA

Location: Ruiru (Githurai-Kimbo), Nairobi

Statement of problems

Nairobi and its outskirts are characterised by poverty, which is on the increase. This has immense repercussions on the conditions of life of the youth who are vulnerable and can hardly complete their education. This group also falls short of adequate social advancement simply because of lack of opportunities to exploit their potentiality.
The difficulty of having access to education and vocational training has worrying consequences on the social context within which the youth grow and mature. This is especially evident in the very high number of youths who are in prevailing conditions of unemployment and underemployment and in those who live in the streets.

Projects description

A positive action is strongly requested to enhance the role of vocational training in fighting poverty and leading the youth to a responsible and active contribution to the life of the society. The way forward is surely made up of two main initiatives: the expansion of the opportunities for youths to join vocational training and to boost its quality, drawing it closer to the needs of labor market. The project intends to target the above quoted issues. The Institute is well aware that several interventions might be carried out to address the question and its choice is to act to improve the situation of the workshops facilities available to the students. Other interventions will be taken into consideration (e.g. training of trainers) during the future development of the activities of the Institute, in order to make more effective the benefits of the training.

The project is being carried out according to the following phases of implementation:

1. assessment of the current training activities, evaluation of the standards of training related to the needs of the labor market
2. identification of a) courses to be expanded; b) interventions aimed at improving the quality of training
3. identification of the items needed to achieve the phase n. 2
4. research of the suppliers and quotations for the needed items
5. purchase of the items
6. setting of the items in the courses
7. evaluation of the impact of the interventions on the training

The supervision of the project will be carried out by the technical board of the Institute, whose members are: the Principal, the Directors and the deputy Director.

Objectives

The general objective is to make better the conditions of life, work as well the income of the youth who belong to disadvantaged social strand through vocational training. By so doing we try to minimize the delinquency and the poverty involved therein.
The activities involved are as follows:
a) to offer the opportunity to a larger number of youths to receive vocational training
b) to offer the youth an improved quality of training through the provision of equipment and facilities to the existing courses.
The project is expected to significantly improve the quality of the training delivered to the students of the Institute. This will increase the chances of these youths to enter the labor market, both making them far more acceptable to the corporate sector and offering them better skills to start up their own micro-enterprise business.
Consequently, the project should well arouse the interest of companies, which will benefit from it through the increased opportunities of more qualified human resources. We therefore see that the companies might consider a permanent cooperation with the Institute worthy to implement.

Beneficiaries

The beneficiaries from the project will be the youth living on the outskirts of Nairobi and some young refugees (from Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Ethiopia etc.)
- 96 youths will be able to joint vocational training in 2002
- 370 youth will benefit from improvement of the training facilities during the year 2001.

Comments

We reckon that one of the primary needs of our society is the betterment in the care of the youths. This is a need and an urgency that has to be considered because it lies within a general view of the situation of the society. It is common opinion that a society prepares its own future through the education of youth. Giving the youth good chances for their life brings about a great challenge to them and consequently they are supported in a positive and hopeful approach to life. These considerations are certainly applicable to all the aspects of the social life and to the economic factor. Boosting the skills of youth is a major step towards a real economic development since it brings about a permanent progress.

Budget: fund requested from the Donors

A list of items (equipment, machinary, tools) has been selected for each course, according to their requirements. The request from each Donor is for US$ 6,500. The fund will be utilized to purchase the needed items for the courses.

Total cost of the project

The contribution of St. Kizito is in kind and is related to the activities of drawing up, coordinating and evaluating the project.

PROJECT 2 TITLE:

JOB ORIENTATION AND MICRO ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT SERVICES (JOMEDS) FOR YOUTH OF THE OUTSKIRTS OF NAIROBI (to alleviate poverty, to promote the human development, to improve the standard of living and to help youth find or start a work, especially those at risk of being socially excluded)

COUNTRY: KENYA

LOCATION: NAIROBI (Kasarani, Zimmerman, Githurai, Kimbo, Ruaraka, Mwiki, Kahawa Sukari areas) and RUIRU

Promoting agents

Companionship of Works Association (COWA), Nairobi; St. Kizito Vocational Training Institute
The COWA is a non profit association founded in 1988 by a group of teachers, youth and volunteers with the aim of human and social promotion particulary through educational activities, vocational training and employment. COWA is duly registered in the companies Act of Kenya on the 25 January 1991. It has its Headquarters in Nairobi, Roysambu Kasarani off Thika Road - P.O: Box 759 RUARAKA

Organizations involved

Technical Institutes, Universities, AVSI, Parishes of Ruaraka, Kahawa East, Kahawa Sukari, Ruiru, Communtity Based Organizations (CBOs) of Zimmerman, Mwiki, Githurai, Kimbo.

Executive summary

Nairobi and its outskirts are characterised by poverty, which is on the increase. This has immense repercussions on the conditions of life of the youth who are vulnerable and can hardly complete their education. This group also falls short of adequate social advancement simply because of lack of opportunities to exploit their potentiality.
The intention of the projects is to improve their conditions of life by offering them opportunities of work.
In order to encourage the development of entrepreneurial initiatives and increase employment opportunities, services such training, providing relevant information, technical assistance and financial support have to be considered in the following areas: Introduction to work and Micro-enterprise promotion.
The project foresees the creation, coordination, and management of JOMEDS that would deliver the services quoted above, with the partecipation of several local subjects. Particular emphasis will be put on the involvement of the corporate sector as essential partner for the effective impact of the project on the youth's life.

Beneficiaries

900 youths between 14 and 30 years old living in the suburbs of Nairobi (Kasarani, Githurai, Kimbo, Zimmerman, Kahawa Sukari, Kahawa West) and at Ruiru (town bordering Nairobi)
a) attending St. Kizito VTI and similar vocational training Institutes
b) who are looking for a job
c) who intended to start their own economic activity

Methodology

To develop services actively oriented towards the human and social promotion of the youth, able to favor a positive partecipation and responsability of the beneficiaries.
To create conditions that enable the youth to adequately face the world of work.

General objectives

To alleviate poverty, to promote the human development and to improve the standard of living of the youth who belong to disadvanteged social strand and by so doing, we contribute to minimize the delinquency and poverty involved therein

Specific objectives

To encourage the commencement of work and the promotion of entrepreneurial activities through the supply of services such as information, technical advice and relevant training.

Planned activities

To offer services capable of providing information, training and assistance to the youth as far as
a) starting of work
b) development of their entrepreneurial capacity is concerned
JOMEDS will be delivered within the head office of COWA in Roysambu in the periphery of Nairobi where 3 rooms (2 offices, 1 reception) totalling about 100 sq. meters are already available.
In the course of the project another floor of 300 sq. meters will be constructed above the existing building and will be made available for carrying out the activities of JOMEDS (with offices and 2 multipurpose rooms).
For its functioning system, it will be occupied by five full time employees; a director of the service, a co-ordinator of the training activities, a secretary and auxiliary service personnel (a driver, a gardener/cleaner).
The human resource employed will be Kenyan and will be the object of a specific training activity.
JOMEDS will be endowed with all the suitable office furniture, equipment and machines and shall have a vehicle that will facilitate the development of the relationships with companies and institutions, an essential function for the activity of the agency. The services will operate permanently through out the year, Monday to Friday, 8 hours a day and will remain open to the public for at least 6 hours a day.
The activity will be coordinated and monitored by a committee composed of representatives of COWA, AVSI, St. Kizito VTI along with the director of JOMEDS, the training coordinator and two local experts competent in the field of entrepreneurship and training. The committee will meet four times a year.

a) support in introducing the work. The development of this activity will be as follows:
1) to collect the applications of the youth who are job seekers, preparing information files useful for an employment orientation through dialogues with the youth themselves.
2) to provide information of various kind useful to the youth in search of a job (addresses, relevant government offices, trade associations etc.)
3) to provide the youth, even through brief information seminars, basic indications on how to prepare a CV, how to face the impact with the work in a firm and on how to keep up such a relationship, on how to face a job seeking interview (manners, introduction, etc.) and any other useful information for the youth who intends to face the reality of work.
4) to favor the possibility for youth to spend periods of formation within companies.
5) to start contacts and links with small, medium and large companies in order to offer them the opportunity of employing youth who respond to their needs. The objective is to involve a large number of companies in a stable relationship and value in highest possible way the human resource, a particularly important factor in today's context. JOMEDS will effect at this level a sort of pre- selection of possible candidates, proposing to the companies a qualified service.
6) regular visits to firms where youth have been employed through the project.
7) to provide start up funds (grant) for covering basic expenditure (bus fare, house's rent) the youth has to cope with, during the first three months of being in employment.

b) support to the starting of new enterprises.
services of both financial and non-financial kind will be available:

1) non financial
- orientation dialogues to verify the actual capability and the effective interest in starting an entrepreneurial activity.
- grassroots level activities to make the youth considering self-employment as a realistic option and to provide them with basic knowledge on the matter. The activities will be carried out at several premises (CBOs, Parishes; Self help groups)
- counseling in the drawing up of the business plan for the enterprise;
- seminars and courses on the main elements for the running of the enterprise (book keeping, marketing, product development, management etc.);
- information and documentation regarding the programs of the Kenyan Government, of the International Organizations, and NGOs working in the particular sector.
- courses in collaboration with St. Kizito VTI and similar Training Institutes addressed to students and realized within the framework of the Institutes, having as a content the fundamental elements for the management of an entrepreneurial activity.
- first indications on financial tools
- regular visits to the enterprises already started
- creation of a network among micro-enterprises and well-established companies aimed at developing operative links and relevant ways of co-operation.

2) financial
- to set up a revolving fund to provide start-up capital through small loans (up to 200 U$) to youth, graduated typically from vocational and technical institutes, who are starting local business.

Sustainability

The program will target a few income-generating sources:
- the companies that will benefit from JOMEDS through the employment of qualified workers will be requested to partecipate in the running costs of JOMEDS.
- the Institutions that will benefit from the seminars/courses for their students will be requested to share the basic costs of the initiative
- training, counseling and technical advice supplied to micro enterprises will be charged.