Proceedings of 11th International Business and Social Science Research Conference
8 - 9 January, 2015, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Dubai, UAE. ISBN: 978-1-922069-70-2
Business Practice Training; Is it a Predictor of Youth Employerbility
Preference in Kenya?
Phoebe Naomi Makanga1 and Raphael Ondeko Nyonje2
The Government of Kenya has clearly identified employment creation as a key policy
objective as envisioned in Vision 2030. One of the interventions in addressing youth
unemployment is the Kenya Youth Empowerment Project (KYEP), a four year World
Bank funded project which aims to support the Government of Kenya efforts to improve
youth employability. It is in light of this that the study sought to assess the influence of
the Kenya Youth Empowerment programme (With focus on business practice training)
on youths’ employability preference. Descriptive research design was employed on a
target population of 602 KYEP graduates and a sample size of 242 selected using
stratified random sampling technique. Questionnaires were used as the main data
collection instrument and data was collected between march and July 2014. Data was
analyzed using Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. A significant relationship
between KYEP and graduates employability preference among university and tertiary
graduates was established, however, the association was not significant among
secondary graduates. Overall results indicated that 69.40% of KYEP graduates planned
to venture in self employment and this was attributed to the influence of KYEP. It was
concluded that the curriculum design for KYEP was very effective in promoting
employability among university and tertiary graduates but was not as effective for
secondary and primary graduates since the variation in employment preference at these
levels were due to chance. To yield maximum results it was recommended that the
program be linked to government SMEs financing programmes to enable graduates fully
implement their plans for self employment.
Field of Research: Management
Key Words: Training Evaluation, Business Practice Training, Youth Employability
____________________________________________________________
1
Phoebe Naomi Makanga , Department of Extra Mural Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. email:
phoemark@yahoo.com
Raphael Ondeko Nyonje, Department of Extra Mural Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya. rnyonje@yahoo.com,
Tel +254 0722982964