 Updates and tonight we talk about youth and employment and with me in studio is is Madhok Madhok Emi Sembe who is the Koto Youth Leader in charge of ICT and social media. You can be part of this conversation by sharing your views and comments on our social media platforms that is on Y254 channel, hashtag Y254 news and you can also reach me at Patricia Morioki-1 on Twitter. Thank you very much for finding time to come and talk about this. Employment among the young people is really becoming a very major problem in the country and we've seen people trying to come up and create ways on how the young people can put themselves out there. But before we get to that would you tell us what is your role as the ICT, the youth leader in charge of ICT and social media under Koto? Well thank you very much for having me. My job is to relay information link wakas work on our website we have a we have a website which is koto kenya.org you have a Facebook page which is Koto Youth there I get to interact with many young workers from different industries either it's in restaurant business service industry and they get to ask me questions and I get to tell them that if you want to be assisted in your employment practice you have to join a trade union. So my job basically is to interview people have shows share with them the labor laws take them through those things and answer periodic questions that may come about. Okay so having said that you interact with mostly young workers and on social media what could you say are some of the challenges that these people speak about? Of course in most of the conversions I've had young workers are vulnerable to employers who who want to use them. So let's say an employer gives you an internship so he gives an internship for more than a year you see unless you speak for yourself unless you have an organization to speak on your behalf you can't be assisted. So you find these young people in an internship position for more than three months which the law says you have to work for more than three I mean of course for three months then after three months you're supposed to see to the employer and request that they should consider you for a job but those are the unfortunate things and if if us talk about the of course the hotel industries like the restaurants we have in Nairobi most of these young people are are forced to dress in a very of course provocative way in order to serve clients and some of them are not happy with those terms so if they want to be assisted they have to join a trade union so that the trade union can come and have a discussion with the employer and give them a fair environment because you find them being employed without any contract and that is dangerous because what's of course what's your relationship between you and your employer it's it has to be something written so young people are not aware that that document can assist you in court if in the event you you and your employer are not in good terms okay we know koto koto is is a body that really makes makes sure that it's fighting for the rights of workers in this country uh what about now we're talking about young people most of them are not let's talk about the group that is out there still looking for jobs and they have not succeeded in getting something so how do you get to help certain people now let's not talk about someone who is in a union someone who is working somewhere and they have registered under certain trade union what about a young person who is out there and they're still scouting for jobs how do you get to offer help to such people yes and you you know of course if you're looking for a job there's some of I mean of course there are many reasons why you're looking for a job and you may not know maybe me of course maybe you're presenting wrong CV maybe it's in how you're writing the motivational letter or the cover letter of the CV they way you're presenting yourself so as koto youth any young person is free to contact us on our page and say have a challenge I want to get employment in this area could you kindly go through my my documents we will be very happy to do that okay according to the Kenyan National Bureau of Statistics it shows that 7 million Kenyans are unemployed that this is a this is a research that was done in March 2018 what could you say is a reason as to where we will have 7 million Kenyans unemployed it's because of kusmoto young people who are finishing school have this notion that they have to get a white collar job and in the Kenya of today things have changed it's not it's not in the days of our parents where they just graduate the job is waiting for them so the young people need to be innovative you need to think of a place where you can get in and start something it's I mean you can sell mboga to a million customers you are better than somebody who's in a bank who's in a who's in a teleposition who's being supervised you see you you get a chance to decide your own future because you're starting businesses what I would advise my fellow young people is to is to be innovative find forums where they can get entrepreneurship ideas find forum where entrepreneurs are meeting of course take time go to this as markets where you can see of course where the gaps if you want to look for the gaps you have to go look to look for them and of course other areas are advising people to take advantage of is in ICT you can easily start anything you can link sellers of rice in Muaya to bars in Nairobi it is you to to to think about it and get a group of people where of course are talking about ICT and then you can find a gap it's about them to take the initiative okay we're going to talk about the opportunities in ICT but I want to ask to talk about I think like three weeks ago there was a there was a discussion a very hot discussion on internship and how organizations most organization don't pay their interns and there was a there was a there was there was mixed reactions because there are people who felt like how do I pay an intern and it's my responsibility they feel like you're coming here to learn so they don't feel like they should pay the intern and then there are other people who feel like these people walking as much as you're going to orient them and show them what to do but the time that they know what they're doing most of the work is going to be done by the interns so how would you address this issue first of all I would like to say an intern is an employee as per the labor laws section 2 an intern is same as an employee okay now what this intern should do is to ensure that they are in good rapport with them with the employers okay you see sometimes you can say that I want you to pay me my salary and get your own trainee you are the master of the of the employer okay because you have agreed with me that there are no jobs so it's not bad to start as a trainee and start work and work for like three months without pay because most people who are successful can tell you that I worked for a place for more than three months so what you need to do if three months elapsed make sure you are communicating with your employer your HR and requesting is there a way that if people can consider to pay me you have to first negotiate it's not a question that you are demanding so that is what I would advise the young people you have to speak for yourself be be very kind work to the HR's office and say kindly I am I've worked here for three months and I'm requesting if you could give me something and that's that's when you start negotiating because that's our work you see every year labor day we we demand for 1.5 increase I mean 15 percent increase last day but on 5 percent it's about negotiation so I'm advising people to learn how to negotiate okay now speaking about now we've talked about the the interns and being able to put themselves out there so what about now these these person has finished their internship and they feel that the the person promises them that they are going to keep them there we find people argue that most young people do not know how to to approach because we want we all want to go out there and get a job that is paying us so high we want to live in a certain place we have all these young people have all these expectations that they want so would you what would you say is a better way for a young person to be able to approach a certain organization because sometimes as much as volunteer jobs could be so tough they help you gain the experience and and if probably is what you have you prefer you rather go for that than stay at home so what advice would you give to the young people on how they approach such jobs or such opportunities such jobs I've already said that if you if you sit in a place for more than three months you are supposed to go and negotiate yes you can go negotiate and wait for them to respond of course when you write a letter they'll give you seven days to respond now my advice will be this find a way and join a trade union secretly privately now work with the trade union to be able to mobilize the workers inside that organization so that you can establish a document called collective bargaining agreement a collective bargaining agreement is an agreement where everyone is looking out for each other because you don't want to have an assistant who's working as an as an intern and is frustrated and because you you're permanently and pensionable you will not feel good so you all you all as a team so if you're in if you're in such a situation find an organization subscribe yourself to that organization tell them that you're not being paid but you're willing to to assist them into getting the other members recruited that way that way you can actually if you get them to recruit more workers in that organization they can be able to sign something called a collective bargaining agreement or from that office they can write a letter we we are meant to understand that you have interns who have who have worked in this organization for more than three months and you know when you cannot have somebody work for you for more than three months without considering them for anything that is illegal in fact it is fraud so that way I think young people can can survive and if they need more advice they can always come to our page go to youth page and they will always find me with answers okay so can we say our is our curriculum good enough is that going to school and being taught being pushed to go to universities and pursue these careers that we want to be is it is it enough or are we pushing people to do a certain thing and living probably motivating people to also go for skills to also go for talent so would you say our curriculum is well equipped to make sure that these people are ready for whatever they find out here yes you see I don't know about the new curriculum I've not gone gone through it but what I can tell you right now our country is moving to skill based you see like guys who do designs are well paid you see they do a job on internet and they're paid like 2000 bob when you calculate that you can make like 30,000 in 15 days you see that's a salary of someone you see so those those are the skills those are the 21st century skills so as a young people since we we we are privileged to to have access to computer you can find a skill like let's say statistics statistics seems to be the hot thing right now if you know how to use SPSS of course collecting data and using SPSS and portraying some information depending on what an organization would like you to do so so so I can't blame our education our education is just to give you the understanding and that is why when you graduate they say now you have the power to read all you have been doing is just to equip you with the skills okay once you graduate the work is now to go and find books and find your interest and say now I have done this course and I'm going to concentrate on this and many people can tell you you graduate with with the business in finance and you find yourself in in in trade union like myself I did finance I'm in trade union you ask me how I don't know maybe it's partial you know so find something that you do slowly by slowly you find yourself getting employed so now someone has gone through primary school secondary school university and they are done they have gone for the three months internship and then it's time for you to look for a job now because now responsibilities are coming up you have bills that you need to pay but every job that you're looking out for most of them want people with three years of experience two years of experience some even five years of experience and you ask yourself for five years I've been in school so what what what adjustment do you think can can be put into place to make sure that at least these young people are accommodated because the more we keep on putting having these high high requirements then we keep we're still flooding the the job market with people who are not employed so what do you think can be done what adjustment do we I think um the advice or maybe we'll give the the Kenyan government is to give incentive to employers you know we have 700 000 people graduating yes can the government give incentives to companies who employ these people on trainee basis give them job give them a job experience and they can give they can get tax incentives to motivate these companies in order to give them a chance to to accumulate those years of experience and also this company should also give people a chance to demonstrate you can have you can have stayed in this life for for small years of time but you're a reader so you know something so company should give young people a chance and if companies can present that maybe in last year we gave like 100 graduands immediately a chance now the money they pay them the government can give them incentive on on the accumulative tax they pay to government okay to encourage companies to take advantage of training and giving people a chance that is advice i'll give give the government so what what opportunities are there in the ict and we know most young people these days are hooked to their funds hooked to their laptops and probably they don't know that that's that's something that can make them even have to be an employer and have and create jobs for people so what opportunities are there in the ict area i would say i have a friend who quit his job the other day i think he was being paid like 60 and i think i'll give that example so this guy does statistics jobs he does homework jobs for some guys outside the country i don't know if you have hand about it so he discovered he makes half of his salary in 15 days and he does not he he's not stressed while he's doing that job he does it at his own time okay so you see those are some of the areas that people should consider it's not necessary you have to to get into a matatu put a tie wake up early at four and travel to Nairobi no no that is i think it's i would say a slave mentality a slave mentality that you have to move from one place to another if see they have access to internet yes see the institutions that are now providing free wi-fi get to understand how can i work from home you see i've given you an example doing homeworks from for guys in the in the united states there's forex okay you see those are some of the areas i've not quite i'm not quite keen on forex but i'm told it's a it's a very intellectual involving internet opportunity you have to be quite interested in economics and you have to be very keen if you if you're lazy and you want to sleep you will not know when the markets will change because the markets can change at 3 a.m so those are jobs that determine you to be disciplined and you see our the way our life the last Kenyans we are quite relaxed even you can tell with the huduma number everyone everyone will be will will be hurrying up to get huduma number two days to the last days and then they will say to nombasa re kali yongese so so there has to be a way that we need to change if the system has has brought us to to think in a certain way that's why they say we give you the power to read now you can read and find out how am i supposed to take to see the moment at this moment in time because the economy has changed the opportunity has changed and i c t is an area that you you can thrive in and i've i've given you doing homeworks i've given you forex i've given you graphic design i've even said statistics no statistics like working units pss everyone wants to see you see i've had this story about big data yes i'm talking about big data being being an opportunity now who's supposed to explain to the ceo what all this data means it has to be a statistician yeah i don't have to go to class to do statistics i can remember me i used to pass statistics and i can tell you i was not quite keen about it i was i just used to be very good at understanding formulas and and implementing them so that is an area that people can can understand okay thank you very much and i think from all that you've talked about tonight it is that every person has a role to play in making sure that the young people of this country have jobs that is the government the employer and the young people themselves so uh a challenge to my fellow young people let us put ourselves out there let us take advantage of every opportunity that we get and also let us not only seek to be employees we can also be employers so use your skills and just try to look for your interest and you're going to make uh din's work for you that is hovian for you tonight thank you for staying with us my name is patricia moyuki catch us live every sunday from 11 a.m to 1 p.m we bring you the best gospel show in 254 i give you the best gospel mixes and now we 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