400 graduates to be hired for State internships

From Left: ICT Authority programmes director Matunda Nyanchama, OLX executives Priscilla Muhiu and Peter Ndiang’ui, Kenya Social Media Awards CEO Martin Muli and Nendo’s Mark Kaigwa at the launch of social media awards in Nairobi on June 3, 2015. PHOTO | FILE 

By DOREEN WAINAINAH

In Summary

• The Presidential Digital Talent Programme, whose next intake is expected to be announced in October or November, enrolled 100 interns in its first phase.

The number of information technology interns to be accepted into the Presidential Digital Talent Programme this year is set to rise four-fold to 400 in plans to equip youths with employable skills.

The initiative, whose next intake is expected to be announced in October or November, enrolled 100 interns in its first phase.

“The government projects 180,000 jobs in the ICT sector by 2017 to boost the sector’s contribution to the GDP to eight per cent” said Dr Matunda Nyanchama, the ICT Authority technical adviser and programme director, at the launch of the OLX Kenya Social Media Awards on Wednesday.

The programme is a public-private partnership that offers university graduates internship and mentorship.

“The graduates will also be taken through certification in Cisco, SAP, project management and security,” he said.

The internship, launched in February, is open to unemployed Kenyan graduates possessing a bachelor of science in ICT or IT-related qualifications from an accredited university.

The graduates, who must have attained an upper-second or first class honours degree in the past two years, are expected to apply for the internship before successful candidates are short-listed for a face-to-face interview.

The young graduates under the programme as expected to serve as management trainees in the government. The initiative aims to support the government in its service delivery efforts.

According to the programme website, the interns who meet all the requirements would graduate and receive a presidential award and a certificate from Kenya School of Government that would enable them get employed in the market.

For its pilot, the State through the ICT Authority partnered with IT firms Cisco, Microsoft, CIO East Africa, Bamba Group, Google, Huawei, Safaricom and the University of Nairobi, among others.

The Ministry of ICT recently partnered with Microsoft and Certiport to train and certify more than a million Kenyans. The training will be conducted at the Microsoft IT academies available in 27 libraries countrywide.

Last year, the Kenya National Library and Microsoft turned 60 library centres into technology academies.

The training programme targets more than 150,000 users of libraries across the country.