Education USA, a programme supported by the department of state and the American Embassy is seeking to bridge the shortage of special skills in the country’s education sector.
The programme will admit interested young Kenyan scholars to study special courses such as software engineering in the US and later required to come back and fill the gap.
Speaking after taking more than 100 secondary school students drawn from various secondary schools in Nakuru over opportunities for further studies in the US, Education Advisor at the Nairobi American Embassy Faith Biko said with Kenya heading towards achieving Vision 2030 goals, most of the skills to handle such as oil drilling and software engineering are rarely found in the country.
“To avoid brain drain which has been impacting negatively on Kenya’s economy especially in the medical sector, education rules in the US Embassy require that it is mandatory for each student that benefits from the scholarship to return to their countries and invest the knowledge they gained,” said Biko.
She noted that in recent past, there has been a diminishing number of Kenyan students applying for the scholarship hence lots of money offered by universities and non-academic institutions is being returned.
Currently, Kenya has more than 3,500 students in universities, 4,700 undergraduate accredited universities and over 1,700 students graduate (masters and PhD) universities in the US.
Henry Mendelsohn, Regional Information Resource Officer at the American Embassy in Nairobi says the US Embassy has already donated more than 3,000 books and audio visual materials and 15 new computers where beneficiaries will access the e-library USA at the Nakuru National Library.