Principal Secretary for Planning and Statistics Irungu Nyakera. [Photo: NMG]The government is committed to empowering the youth through key interventions in education, preparation for the job market, employment, and access to finance.Principal Secretary for Planning and Statistics Irungu Nyakera has said the focus will be on the job-creating sectors by prioritising manufacturing, low-cost housing, agriculture, and healthcare, as enumerated by President Uhuru Kenyatta on Jamhuri Day."These growth-oriented sectors will offer initiatives, projects, and programmes, with the youth set to be the greatest beneficiaries of the 6.5 million targeted jobs over the next five years," Nyakera writes on Friday's Daily Nation.He adds that the plan is to ensure that youth have the right education and skills to take on future employment.Nyakera says that some of the significant interventions include improving the skills of the young people through Technical Vocational Education and Training; expansion, revitalisation, and staffing of technical training institutes. Others include increasing Higher Education Loans Board funds for the universities and TVET and aligning the curriculum to industry needs after which the graduates will be equipped for the job market through internship and apprenticeship programmes."To facilitate this, the government has established a Youth Development Council to link young people to opportunities, and will extend tax incentives to organisations on admitting interns," he adds.Nyakera says that once educated and technically prepared, the youth will be ready take up the opportunities in manufacturing, commercial agriculture, agro-processing, and housing.

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