In the current competitive and dynamic job market, your formally acquired education and its attendant credentials are not sufficient to guarantee you a job in a fast-changing world.

Young people in Kenya are continually finding it difficult to find a job after they finish university or college and it is proving a herculean task to maintain a job, if they secure one.

As a young person, you have to be the best or among the best at your job and this entails learning, unlearning and relearning your craft to be better suited for the future of work.

To better shape the youth and ease their transition from education to the job market, Absa Bank Kenya has pioneered the ReadyToWork programme to grant them the relevant skills.

The flagship programme enables young people aged 16 to 35 to find jobs or create jobs by empowering them with the relevant skills to transition from education to the world of work.

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The ReadyToWork programme, which targets to impact one million youth by 2025, has so far empowered more than 250,000 young people through the training in future skills.

The ambitious programme is available for free on the ReadytoWork e-Learning Platform and is composed of four key modules namely work, people, money and entrepreneurship skills.

Absa Kenya Citizenship Manager Antoninah Moturi says the program aims to bridge the gap between what is taught in universities and colleges and what is needed in the job market.

“We would invest in learning for the few who came on board but we realized the problem was recurring. We received the same sentiments from other employers as we conducted research on this. There were ready opportunities, but the workforce lacked the requisite soft skills.

“Aspects such as money management, once it's payday, a week or two one is unable to commute to work or lack of emotional intelligence to assess what to say, when to speak, and how to speak. Now as the world is changing, many young people struggle with change leading to mental issues. These and more are reasons for developing this program that has 10 modules now.”

She called for more partnerships with like-minded institutions to empower future leaders noting the changes in behavior, confidence levels, and growth of the trained individuals.

Absa Bank Kenya has absorbed quite a number of beneficiaries of the popular ReadytoWork programme into various departments, where they are applying their relevant skills acquired.

Among the beneficiaries of the programme is Samwel Oriwo, who says he has gotten a chance to put the relevant skills acquired through the e-learning courses to action.

“With this program, I have up-skilled myself, gaining knowledge on other areas such as computer literacy and gig economy. These are skills that are crucial to the young generation as most jobs are available online. We have several opportunities, but aligning ourselves to them require the skills that make us ready for the jobs,” said Oriwo.

Samwel Oriwo was officially branding and welcoming new Absa ReadytoWork Student Ambassadors, Kenyatta University in Nov 17, 23 at Kenyatta University. PHOTO|COURTESY

Oriwo, who works as the Retention Assistant in Card Issuing at the Absa Kenya head offices in Westlands, encouraged fellow youth to take advantage of the programme to upskill in preparation for the job market.

“Being ready to do something drives you to find it, and do it. Absa ReadytoWork Program equips youths with the knowledge on how to up-skill, multi-skill, be agile, improve presentation skills, be up to date in terms of technological advancements and increase employability,” he added.

Absa has partnered with CARE Kenya, Kenya Girl Guides Association, International Youth Foundation, University of Nairobi, Strathmore University and the Ministry of ICT for the project.

The education and skill development initiative is tailored to help the youth to convert learning to earning by registering on the Absa ReadytoWork App to get free online courses.

The following core training courses are available in the learning hub:

• Work Skills to get yourself work ready.

• People Skills to find ways of working together and understanding people's emotions.

• Money Skills to help you manage your money.

• Entrepreneurial Skills if you dream of running your own business.

The platform keeps adding more advanced courses including digital literacy, gig economy, blockchain technologies, computational thinking among others to make it more relevant.

Any young person who registers for ReadytoWork will enjoy the following benefits:

• The career hub provides tools, resources, articles and videos among others.

• A job search tool enables young people to search for their dream job.

• Free access to Online Career Guidance to help make informed and realistic career choices through insights into the world of work, jobs of the future, and needed skills.

• Connecting and networking with a community of like-minded people also registered on the ReadytoWork App and already know how to make it work for them.

• Celebrate success with powerful Certificates of Completion for each course making your CV more attractive to potential employers.