Project Design and Status
The activities supported by the programme will open opportunities for further employment, skills development, and entrepreneurship. They respond to the issue raised by Kenyan employers who assert that many youth who come out of schools and training centers lack the relevant work experience and competencies needed for employment. Given the limited absorptive capacity of existing formal labour markets in the developing world, the project will provide internships in both the formal and informal sectors. The intervention will be employer-driven in design and implementation to ensure ownership and commitment.The activities delivered through the intervention include: (i) creation of internships in the private sector (either formal or informal); (ii) provision of training designed by employers relevant to the work experience (including both technical and life skills training); and (iii) monitor and evaluate to capture lessons from the pilot.
Principles of Project design
The following principles guide the design of this project:
Employer Driven The private sector has played a key role in the design and implementation of the program, to ensure both the commitment and ownership of the intern program and the relevance of the training provided.Flexibility The component allows flexibility at the sector level in defining the internship educational profile and the development of the sector training plan, to allow for differences in the educational profile of selected interns across the sectors and the required mix of skills and approaches to skills development. However, there must be consistency with the component’s general guidelines.
Simplicity Priority is given to simplicity over complexity to reduce demands on capacity for implementation and ensure effective implementation, wherever component design choices are made.
Transparency There are clear rules and procedures for implementation, together with annual audits of the program, to provide for good governance and confidence in the manner in which the component is being implemented.
Consistency All features of component design, including incentives for interns and employers, procurement of training services, handling of funds, are consistent with World Bank and Government of Kenya (GoK) policies.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for the Training and Internship programme, all female and male youth must:
- Be aged 15-29 years of age;
- Have had a minimum 8 years of schooling;
- Have been out of school for at least a year;
- Not working and Kenyan citizen.
The minimum of eight years of schooling is included as a means to ensure that this group will have basic education and the ability to benefit from further training. Although both secondary and tertiary educated youth are part of the target population, it has been agreed to cap the share of interns with tertiary education (i.e. graduates) at 40% to avoid project bias by this education group and provide an opportunity to compare project results for different levels of education
