Konza Technopolis Development Authority (KoTDA), the implementing agency for Konza Technopolis Smart City in Kenya and Moringa School, a learning-accelerator, have partnered to support the design and implementation of the Jitume Skills Program in Kenya in a bid that will see Kenyan youth access digital skills training via the Moringa School platforms.
Konza and Moringa School will run the Jitume Skills Program, a government initiative aimed at accelerating the pathway for Kenyans to get onboard Digital Economy by providing a pathway to enable young people to overcome the device, skills and opportunities barriers currently existing. The two will focus on technology transfer between the two institutions and jointly expend the effort in promoting local content and customizing technologies from the world over to fit the local context.
“We appreciate this initiative by Konza and Moringa School that will ensure that programs available at Moringa School are accessible to Jitume beneficiaries. This will enable young Kenyans to get quality training and access to global opportunities.” said Eng. John Tanui, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Digital Economy.
The program is providing job centres (Jitume Digital Empowerment Centers), Learning centers (Jitume- Class) and Job Linkages in partnership with private sector companies in Kenya. The program targets to enable 1 million young Kenyans take part in digitally enabled jobs in the next 3 to 5 years.
The platform will enable the youth to learn and access digital skills which shall propel them to access global online jobs. The five-year MoU will see Moringa connecting participants of Jitume who further enrol to Moringa programs to local and international employers.
“We are very grateful and happy to get this kind of support from Moringa School. We have been working with TVETs institutions, but this signing today will enable us roll it out to the rest of the country through the institution.” said John Paul Okwiri, Ag. CEO of Konza adding that the MoU is a boost to the Jitume Program which is currently being rolled out across the country.
Moringa School aims to close the skills-gap in Africa’s job markets by delivering transformative tech-based learning to high-potential jobseekers; and on graduation connecting them to local and international employers who desire high-quality tech talent.
The MoU will build on Moringa’s success as a training institution while supporting digital jobs creation in Kenya.
According to Snehar Shah, CEO, Moringa School, “Today is a milestone day for Moringa School. We have achieved a lot in creating digital talent and this engagement will scale up these achievements going ahead,” he said.
A vision2030 flagship project that seeks to Konza Technopolis as a smart city of international standards to position Kenya as a knowledge-based economy and a preferred Science, Technology & Innovation (ST&I) destination. The city is already starting to show its impact to the country through such programs as Jitume and is expected to generate at least 17,000 direct jobs at the end of Phase One.
The Jitume Program is an initiative being implemented by the Ministry of ICT and the Digital economy, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign affairs, Ministry of labour, implementing agencies namely: Konza Technopolis Development Authority, TVET Authority ICT Authority and key partners such as Thunderbird School of Global Management and private sector Job aggregators such as Lish-AI among others.