Power Learn Project is training 1,700 young people from refugee and host communities in Kenya’s Garissa and Turkana counties in artificial intelligence, cloud computing and data analytics, as technology skills become increasingly important to access jobs in the digital economy.
The 25-week programme, backed by the International Labour Organization, Microsoft and the Garissa County Government and funded by the Netherlands through the PROSPECTS Partnership, combines technical training with workplace skills, professional certification and employment pathways.
More than 700 learners have already enrolled in Garissa from over 1,000 applications, according to Power Learn Project. Women account for 35% of applicants, while 16 of 37 partner digital hubs across Garissa and Turkana are now delivering the programme.
Microsoft is providing as many as 1,000 certification vouchers to graduates, covering credentials including Azure Fundamentals, Azure AI Fundamentals, Power BI Data Analyst and Microsoft 365 Fundamentals.
The initiative reflects a growing push by governments, technology companies and development organisations to connect young people in underserved and refugee-hosting regions with skills that can be sold into local and international labour markets.
For Power Learn Project, the focus is shifting from digital training alone to whether those skills generate income.
“Talent is universal; access to opportunity is not,” said Mumbi Ndung’u, co-founder and executive director of Power Learn Project Africa. “Our work with the ILO and Microsoft in Garissa is about correcting that imbalance by building the skills, infrastructure and pathways that allow young people, regardless of geography or circumstance, to compete, create and earn in the global digital economy.”
The programme is designed to link graduates with employers and other ecosystem partners while supporting opportunities in employment, entrepreneurship and remote work.
Garissa Governor Nathif Jama Adam said the county sees digital skills as increasingly important to the future of work and economic participation.
“As a county, we recognise that the future of work is increasingly digital,” Adam said. The Garissa programme follows the launch of the initiative in Kakuma, Turkana County, in June, extending the training model to more young people in Kenya’s refugee-hosting communities.
The ILO said the programme is aimed at addressing the risk that digitalisation could widen existing gaps in access to employment.
“Digital transformation is reshaping labour markets faster than policy can keep pace,” said Caroline Njuki, chief technical adviser at ILO Kenya.“For refugee-hosting communities, the risk isn’t being left behind, it’s being excluded altogether from the opportunities now defining economic participation.”
The programme’s expansion comes as employers increasingly seek workers with capabilities in AI, cloud computing and data analysis, while young people outside Kenya’s main technology centres continue to face barriers to accessing relevant training and employment.
The partners ultimately intend to measure the programme by its ability to convert training and certification into jobs, businesses, freelance work and sustainable livelihoods.
For Kenya’s refugee and host communities, that could make digital skills less a development intervention and more a direct route into the country’s expanding technology economy.