 I believe that all of us in one way or the other, we played football, we played any game when we were growing up, meaning that we were talented, but no one had an opportunity to show us the way. So all of us I believe that we have a talent, but it's a matter of how do we discover, how do we make that talent that has pushed us as examination body, being a business development coordinator for ICM and in partnership with Zitec University, we've developed a curriculum that is not a matter of just going there physically to play, be football, be rugby, but look at how now we can professionalize the talent itself into a career that help young people to earn a living from that. So there's a need because the concern that we'll all talk about is an employment and people won't realize that football is already a field that we can create employment. So we looked at how we create these opportunities, this field of talent into something that can generate employment. That's why we've gone out there partnering relevant stakeholders, being training institution, being foundation that we can now look at, are we able to create employment from the talents. So regardless of how big or small someone may perceive a talent to be, it has relevance. Having worked with the UK examination, you realize that most of us watch Manchester United and Arsenal, we support them. It's because they identified opportunity in talent and that's why they're promoting soka and soka is a big industry. And they earn from what they do. They earn a lot. In fact, which team do you support? Arsenal. They earn from it. They earn from it. With footballers. Exactly. We see if we wrote now the career, the talent itself to the academic, then even having this talented young man losing focus is easier. Take an example of how many footballers, how many talented young people that you've had, they were so talented, they were so big, their names were big. But right now, it's an empty shell. It's because they lacked the education. Now we took about now the education aspect in the career aspect. Put them together to get a holistic person. Powerful, powerful. Now, is it possible for you to succeed without talent? It is possible to succeed without talent because you may take academic route. But without education and talent alone, you cannot succeed. Okay. So there's a need for us now to connect education and talent. Building up. You build it up together. Exactly. So when you look into someone's individual life when it comes to building up, what are the ways that someone can go through the journey of self-discovery to build themselves up in regards to the talent that they have? First of all, we want to appreciate that even the government itself realize that there's a need for them to set even a field in secondary schools, on primary schools for young people to start playing. Why is that? It's because they realize that there's an opportunity in self-discovery. And that's why this break time will run with football in the field. Why are we doing that so that we can now start discovering ourselves? And self-discovery, we normally say that there are stages in life in a person's life. One of the fundamental stages in one's life is discovering who you are. The moment you discover who you are, then now you get the relevant network, the relevant people that can help you nacha that becomes very, very important. So at what stage does someone discover himself? Exactly. So that is the most important. At what stage? That stage normally comes with self-connection, self having a meeting with yourself. The ones a person has a meeting with themselves. Then this person is able to differentiate what is good and what is bad. What rather than we just wait to playing soka for fun, now you convert it into money. But now Kevin, there is a parent who is watching us from home, who has a son or a daughter. How can they also help their son in that journey of self-discovery so that their child can also get to know that they are talented in something? A very good question. Our parents I think when we are growing up, most of them they could push us for education. Have you done your assignment? Are you number one? Are you number one? All of our parents were number one. But they were number one. My father loves mathematics. He loves mathematics. So what we are encouraging parents over the weekend, can you create time? Take your son to the field where the other people or other children are playing soka. Try to find out, is it possible that he can play soka? Take him probably to media and theatre acting. Is it possible that we can discover the person? Because when in the house you will see your child running around, making noise, probably singing. So as a parent help your child to discover his or her talent, then from there take a step of faith by connecting to the right field. And that's why us at Zitec University and ICM examination, we've developed a curriculum that can now, other than just coming to class for your academic and after that you take your books and go home, is there time for you to walk in the field? Then how can a parent help their child to bring that balance? Because you have your talent and you have education. You have laid emphasis that talent without education is nothing. How can you lay that balance for your child? Very, very important. The TV we talk about right now is not about what have you scored. Have you gotten an A? Have you gotten a B? What marks have you gotten? So what we normally look at is how do you balance? What are the skills that this person has? As in the aspect of academic. And that's what you talk about, the competency best. So the competence you look at, the technical skills that this person has that can add value to this person. A very good example is our engineer brother Olunga who is playing right now football. As much as he is doing his engineering course, you realize that football is the main thing. In fact people will know more about football than even he is more than an engineer. So to me, I think what we need to do as a parent is by taking time, creating time with our children. And when we create time with our children, there are so many facilities that are around us. There are so many theater rooms that we can take our children. Rather than having watching a TV in a house, why can't you create that time on Saturday or afternoon and try to connect this young people? Because as we said, the career has to be built, has to be mentored. It's not just one thing, then you become that talented person. Then as the training institution like universities and the examination body, we also concern with when now this person is talented physically fit, is in a position to write even to sign his own contract, does he understand the contract? Does he understand the communication aspect? The life skills? How does it relate with other players? So those are now the things that we now come in to help this person. Not when you play this soka. How long are you going to play this soka? For how long are you going to play this music? It will reach a time when this talent may not support you and that's when education has to be in to build your business. And now we've talked about parenting for the parents. Let's come back to the youths. As a young man, is it possible and how can someone go through this the process of building their talent regardless of their academics? Because now we are in a time where education, there is some emphasis that has been laid on education and the same energy is not translated when it comes to talent and talent search and talent enhancement. Is it possible for an individual as a young man to be able to achieve that? Thank you. I believe that we blame our parents in leadership for a very long time and we also have a responsibility. We have a lot of time. We are talented but you are waiting for someone to push you. You remember like have you done that assignment? You are waiting for someone to cane you. So I have been watching and taking a new example of Churchill show. You realize that most of those comedies, they will tell you when you listen to their journey series, they will tell you that I have taken those shows a hundred and how many times. Meaning that they never gave up. They want to go there. They will be disappointed. They will be told no, you cannot make it but they will keep on going there. So for me it's to you, where is your direction? If I'm a footibola, will I go to church singing? If I'm a footibola, let me find myself self-disciplined in the field every time. Then when I'm in the field, I now need to start connecting with the relevant institutions like the universities, like the colleges or even the clubs so that I can promote myself. So it starts by an individual discovering himself and self-discipline, then move the right direction. What about branding? Is branding also important in talent? Branding will come in when you have gotten the knowledge and education. And that's why as ZTEC universities, ICM will be there. Because if you don't have knowledge on life skills, you will find yourself missing in town. You talk about your restaurant, you are missing in town. So the branding, you have to protect your brand because the brand is the name. Who likely to sign a footibola? Next time you will hear that he is in drugs and so on. So discipline is very important. It boils down to character. And I will always tell players as a trainer that drugs does not pay. It will never help you. So discipline and drugs will not help you. You could be a good footibola but without discipline, you are killing your career. Some go for enhancement so that they can boost their performance. There is a reason why God created us to a certain speed. So don't use drugs because at the end of the day it will have impact, in fact negative impact in your life. So we just talk about natural, talented young men and women who are out there to build their own career. There is no need for you to use enhancement. What about recognition? There are many who are talented but they lack the space to be recognized. The place to showcase their talent. How can you go through that? Over December holiday we had an opportunity to partner as ICM Examination Body and Zitec University to partner with three foundations in western Kenya that was Philippe Itale Foundation, Baraza Foundation and David Wamati Foundation. What you are looking at, they created soka tournament where they were looking at like Baraza Foundation had 1,200 teams. Women, youth, male and ladies were looking at how do we identify these opportunities. In Philippe Itale and David Wamati we had 18 teams. So as a university and examination body we worked there to partner with them. Rather than just playing a soka tournament for three weeks we went to an extent of where now we are looking at how do we pick the talented young people and now they can move to the training institution. So the opportunity is there. We moved to the village in Kamegewe Nilugare and now we are trying to play 18 teams. So as a serious talented young man I think it will be a responsibility for you to walk into one of the teams so that your talent can be identified. So without working there it becomes tricky. So like in Italy we were able to get like two young people who are getting scholarship at the university. Mumias David Wamati we got one youth who is getting a scholarship. So now it is not about just playing soka in the village and remainder. Now we are picking the boy from the village from Mumias and now taking him to the university. Talent search. We had different teams, different scouts coming there for just to identify the soka. So for me it is also to encourage the leadership and the locals that less organize most of these tournaments but not just organizing to give these young people money 50,000 and then we are done with that. Less organize a tournament that can help build a career for these young people. After that do we take them to school? After that what else? And probably we will also not just leave it to the soka look at the rugby, look at acting, look at so many talent that can help these young people grow. Now when it comes to talent let me refer to one more terminology skill. What is the difference and how can we be able to put skill into talent thereby translating into an income earning activity through building up a career. A skill I am looking at probably this young man has shown that he can kick the ball but to what extent? And that's why we need to connect the person with the coach. So when you connect the person with the coach now he improved on that skill. I believe I don't know how you found yourself in media but I believe that you had the passion probably to tell the story. So if you want to tell the story now you will probably find yourself now going to learning environment. So when you connect now with the coach coach now try to improve into the skills and I am looking at this player as I said earlier what is the purpose for you doing the exercise or doing the practice. I am looking at converting this skill into an employment and I think we should not look at talent as an entertainment because I am going to play to run in the field for 45 minutes then after that I am going home to shower and sleep. That is not helping. How do you pay when you are transporting your meal? That's why you are saying now convert that skill into a professional. That now we will connect you with a club as a university we will connect with a club that the club can sign you as a professional. So see now we picked you from the village we connected with the coach we have given you knowledge skills leadership, marketing, personal skills and now we are connected with a team a team that is playing on the premier league or whichever level that helps you now to earn a living from that. Now when you look at these examples you have given you have given a lot of emphasis on footballers let's talk about indoor activities indoor talent, artists, those who draw those who do skits, drama How best can persons who engage in such activities and have themselves to build because they are outdoor activities like soccer you connect them to coaches what about these indoor activities? Still at the university, Zittuck University we have acting media department and I have seen a number of youth who are doing electrical engineering diploma and right now they are doing local shows in acting I have not even been allowed but I have seen a youth who is doing electrical acting in a certain show since called Maria is shown in a certain TV somewhere so you see this was an engineer but he realized this engineering thing is not my thing so he did engineering they left it they left it but because there was a forum the institution that provided the acting aspect now they are right in there in the industry so it's all about now the environment the institution that we have are they there just for learning purposes or they are creating these rooms so we need to have a room where we are helping these young people ok, academic is good and we appreciate we have graduates every year but after that what next? what next? but now if you look at what next? because after graduation everyone is job seeking looking for job termaking the youth outside there are unemployed but they have talent but now if you are talking about talent especially in a career can talent be also a criterion of qualification especially when assessing what skills one may have in a given role and that's why for me as a count we need to change our thinking I've given an example I happen to have an opportunity to work with the UK system especially the assessment the examination and you realize that they'll pick a young man or a young boy and put him in an academy soka academy so that they are not interested that this person has a master's or a PhD but they are interested in this skill now within the academy you realize that the other thing the training the computer there's a clinic there's a hospital so there's so many facilities that is happening there are teachers not only just soka but there's so many activities so I think as a country we need to change our thinking and look at how we create more employment within the talent than looking at the academy you will agree with me that when you look at the aspect of betting so many people here there's a lot of money that circulate within the betting and people make a lot of money which means that we like we like sporting so how do we harness that opportunity how do we create opportunity someone was challenging me that when people talk about bulu economy just use this example what do we look at what are the opportunities there people probably talk about a ship but no one is thinking about now creating tourism maybe a hotel that can float on the sea so you see you can create a hotel that can float on the sea but people are not looking at that opportunity creativity people are not looking at the divers how many divers can we train from that so for me it's like how many opportunities can we look at within the sporting are we only talking about coaching in the football himself are we looking at extra mile and look at other putting that we can create within that yet you know there are still challenges when it comes to this we are saying people be creative we are saying people go out there do things but you see people are being taken advantage of the youths people are taking advantage of the youths that all volunteer here they work there with no pay and they end up getting devastated I think this is all about the honesty from the leadership if we can have probably every county creating creating a academy probably a theater room each county and see how we can create opportunities within the industry probably be acting, be theater how many comedians do we have so many of them but they are just working on their own there is no organized forum where we can have creating opportunities because I believe media will want to advertise so by advertising that's already an opportunity so how would we create how would we harness this economy how would we harness this opportunity from the talent that we have from the sporting that we have I think it's a challenge to the leadership so that we don't use them but to make use of the opportunity and create more resources you've been working around the country and beyond I don't know interact with the youths what are some of the weaknesses and challenges you've noticed that are there predominantly in most youths when it comes to talent development turning into an income generating activity I had an opportunity to visit at least 10 countries the greatest challenge that we have is I think the attitude first of all from the players because youth themselves because they've been used before an example where an area MP will organize a tournament and probably pays these young people so he put them in the field to run for 2 weeks or 3 weeks sweating then a team of probably 22 people then when they win you're given probably 20,000 as a winning team you feel used 20,000 out of 22 players for 2 weeks having run 2 weeks and so on it doesn't help you then you've won the tournament what next after that so the attitude now you killed the morale you killed these young people then the honest now these are two things you've destroyed the attitude of these players then you yourself as a leader are you honest you're only there to gain mileage then after that we left these young people so that's why we're saying now let's have training institutions that think beyond training these young people let them convert the talent and sporting into something productive that can help us build ourselves now projects I'm looking at the events that you've been engaged in as someone who looks into talent development as we bring this discussion to a close what are the projects that youth should be looking out for and how can they get into contact with you for someone who is talented and wants to build their talent and take it to the next level I think these are now talk as an outreach officer for Zitec Zitec University that we develop a curriculum with ICM as an examination so I'm looking at youth who is out there and feels talented don't just sit even if you scored at D at Form 4 walk out to university and try to inquire which course can you take because right now we've restructured the education system with your D you can start from artisan to your PhD so don't just sit at home walk to these our institutions walk to Zitec University get admission for course then once you get admission for course join a club so they should physically come to your location at Zitec they should physically come Kevin I would like to give you just one final word to speak to the nation within just 10 seconds what are your thoughts to the Kenyan talent and your thoughts whether is it being tapped or not just within 10 seconds or 20 Thank you my brother I think people are out there the likes of Gostumule they are doing a lot of work the training institution are doing a lot of work but that is not enough so let's partner let's move together then our academic think that academic will give us a job because we'll get frustrated as graduates waiting for a job waiting for someone to employ in the bank yet you are an actor wasting your talent so for me to call upon the youth change your attitude, discover yourself move from your comfort zone and move this institution that will help you build your career That is Kevin Osundwa lecturer the business development manager Thank you for the opportunity to talk to Kenyans and you out there don't sit in the comfort zone Remember as he has said do not be comfortable, do not sit there expecting things to manna from heaven, do something with your talent Well that brings us to the end of this show right here on why in the morning it has been a pleasure being with you all the way from 7 till now May God bless you and may God bless the work of your hands and tomorrow for another edition of why in the morning Keep it Y254 My name is Ram Aguko Have a good day