Foundation Empowers Youth As World Observes World Youth Skills Day

Optiven Foundation joined the rest of the world to mark the World Youth Skills Day. The global observation is held on the 15th of July yearly to consider the developments towards making youth skills valuable to the society. The theme for this year is ‘transforming youth skills for the future .’

The observation of the day came at a time when the Optiven Group Foundation has upscaled it’s engagement under it’s education intervention to include support for youth to attend technical and vocational training TVET. Through its social media platforms, the foundation hosted one of the youth who is currently on internship training under the Optiven Foundation, to discuss opportunities available through embracing TVET in Kenya.

Separately, Mr. George Wachiuri, Chairman of the Optiven Foundation says the move is aimed at empowering youth to become self dependent in terms of employment opportunities. He added that the move to upscale to TVET support from the Optiven Foundation education support under SESP for secondary education was made possible through a unique partnership with the Upside Trust of the United Kingdom.

Wachiuri says, “we are keen to provide opportunities to youth who have graduated from the Soaring Eagles Scholarship Programme so as to empower them to be valuable members of the society.” He called on parents and guardians to encourage the youth to embrace opportunities under TVET noting that not all the youth will get opportunities to join the universities, yet as graduates of TVET their role is very key in the community.

Wachiuri noted that there is need for a shift in thinking where youth should see opportunities even in technical work as opposed to blue collar jobs. He made the remarks during a handover ceremony on 14TH July 2022 for the donation of 100 desks by the Optiven Group Foundation to Korrompoi Primary School in Kajiado county as well as during a food donation drive held at Kakululo Destiny Life Church.

Ahead of the celebration, the Optiven Group Foundation was on the ground in Kieni and Kakululo where it offered various scholarships to students keen on joining TVET in Machakos and Nyeri counties respectively. The different events were also an opportunity to provide a score card on what the TVET intervention is expected to achieve in terms of meeting education needs under the education pillar as well as offering a way out of poverty by creating employers under the poverty eradication pillar.

So far 30 students have received their certification to attend TVET training which will upscale their skills and enable them to be employed or to be employers. And as the world celebrates youth skills day, there is need to continuously highlight the ongoing focus on skills training for life, work and sustainable development.

These will be the focus areas to be discsussed at the Transforming Education Summit that will be held in September 2022 courtesy of the International Labour Organization ILO, and UNESCO. For the youth the time is now to adapt to the demands of an ever changing world in need of new skills and technology. Happy World Youth Skills Day from the Optiven Foundation.

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