 This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. This is the way to do it. Hello and welcome to Youth in Action. In today's program, we have Martin Gauzu, the in-tech program manager at Nairobi Trust. Martin, Karibu Sana to the show. Tell us what is Nairobi Trust? Thank you, Granis, and thank you for coming to the Youth in Action program. Nairobi Trust is an organization and profit organization that bridges the social economy gap and targets our young people from an under-resourced background, equipping them with ICT and probability scales. The organization was started 23 years ago and over a period of those 23 years, we have impacted over 100,000 young people with ICT scales. Yes. So what is the drive behind Nairobi Trust? The drive behind Nairobi Trust, actually Nairobi Trust was founded by three Dutch ladies. They came in Kenya in 1999 and they were dealing with this organization called Motherhood Youth Sport Association, MAISAR. And they thought, how can we empower these young boys and girls who are playing football within MAISAR? And that's how they coined the Nairobi Trust. So our roots are from Netherlands and we are happy to have been in existence for that long. Our drive is to ensure like the young people from under-resourced background or urban informal settlement get vocational ICT skills that can get them entry-level jobs within the ICT sub-sector. So what platforms do you use to encourage the youth development in this trust? Actually, positive development is one of our philosophies. We have two philosophies within Nairobi's. Positive youth development and digital opportunities. Over a long period of time, people have been seeing young people as people who create chaos. But we realize that young people have a lot of energy, they have a lot of creativity and they have a broader thing. So we decided, how can we harness that potential and make it in good use? So we want to see young people not as a problem to the society, but as a population that has what it takes to take this country forward. And harnessing the youth's potential takes a collective unit. So how do you incorporate the elderly generation into these programs? About a collective effort, I would like to underscore something here. Nairobi's believes in partnership. And in everything that we do, we have anchoring into the partnership. And how we encompass the elderly is also we have other programs that target even people who are beyond the ages of 24. We have programs that target women. And we realize like these young people, they have mothers, they have fathers. How do we ensure that they are the start what the young people do when they come to Nairobi's? And that's how we encompass everyone. We also even have programs for the kids. For instance, we have a program we have been piloting with Google called OPEA. And it focuses on training young people how to learn mathematics using fun way. There is a mobile application and there is this fun way like if John had five apples and he had two, how many was he left with? Like teaching simple education in multiplication, addition, division. And apart from the ICT program that we have for young people, we also have a program on SRHR, sexual production, early productive health and rights. We are cognizant of our young people, they have sexual needs. And you have to teach them about how to know about their rights and even how to access services. So how do people get to access you at Nairobi's and how do they join the programs? Thank you very much for that question. How people access us. One, you can get us through a social media. That's one avenue. But as I mentioned, you are so much anchored into partnership. So we partner with the community-based local organization like Kei and Kisumu will be targeting the local organization to help us immobilization. So some of these young people, they are already working with those community-based organizations. So you are going to reach them and tell them we have this program. And how can people join the program? We always have our application online. For instance, in Kisumu, if one wants to join the program, their application is appriakis.negrobits.com. So if you go to that link, you are just going to get a Google form, you're just filling. And then after that, we are going to contact you and invite you for an interview. So would you mention specifically the programs for the kids, for the young people in their names and what they do? Nairobi's one of its core programs is ICT or the training program that's in ICT. And that program is called Intec in food, innovation and technology. And the Intec program has six programs, sub-programs inside it. One of them is a DLP, which is a 12-weeks course or digital-classic program. It takes 12 weeks. And within 12 weeks, we teach young people the basics of ICT, graphic design, digital marketing, online work, life skills and soft skills. And eventually, they graduate and certificate level. Then the other program within Intec, it's called AMP or Advanced Multimedia Program. And AMP, now the students who have gone through the DLP transition to the AMP. So that is six weeks course or you can call nine months, which is divided into two segments. We have 24 weeks in class training and 12 weeks industrial attachment. So once they get to the AMP, the first two months, they are trained design and development. That's coding. After eight weeks, they specialize for 16 weeks and either do design or my display design or front-end web development. And after they are done with the 24 weeks in class, they proceed to industrial attachment for another 12 weeks. That's a total of 36 weeks. AMP is a diploma level. DLP is a certificate level. Apart from those mainstream programs, we also have a program called VAT, which is a one-week long training, a short program that focuses on teaching people how to become digital storytellers using smartphones. So that one, we can take it to any organization that you are partnered with. Even here in KBC, if you need, we come and teach maybe part of your team about digital storytelling using their smartphone. We can organize a program for them. Another program that we have is a program called LMI, Labor Market Integration. And this program within the intake ensures that the people who finish through our program, we are able to present them other internships. So it has a free dedicated personnel who goes through internship or even making company visit to ensure the people who are in those internships, they are doing what's expected of them, including signing their logbooks. We also have a program called Co-Arcumen. And we realize we are producing very good graphic designer. We are producing very good developers, but they were liking life skills and soft skills. What we did, our Co-Arcumen ensures that we prepare them for the job market. And Co-Arcumen takes 20% of our training. So every Friday when you have training, we bring guest trainers. We can even invite you to come to have, speak to our students. We don't even do it ourselves. We invite the market expert to come and speak with our students. We conduct even mock interviews. We conduct even pitching events for our students and even giving them feedback before they go to the job market, including giving their job applications and their CVs and cover letters. I am curious to understand, are these trainings pro bono or does someone have to pay up for it? Our programs are sponsored. To train one person from the DLP to the AMP level, this costs us like a hard-lead outside Kenya Shelling. But we don't give our programs for free. And this is because we have free arise. If you give things for free, they take it for granted. So our programs, we introduce something co-commitment thing. And for our DLP level, the center that pays most pays 5,000. And here in Kisumu, we'll be charging 3,500 for 12 weeks. In our AMP level, we charge 6,500. So in total, someone going through our program from the DLP to the AMP, they pay a maximum of 11,500. Whereas it costs us hardly that much to train that young person. Yes. And how long is the training? The DLP, as I mentioned, is 12 weeks. For the AMP, it takes 36 weeks. So in total, the entire intake program is 12 months or one year. Yes. And how have the programs helped so far? As I mentioned earlier, we have impacted over 100,000 young people, giving them ICT skills that introduce them to the job market. And I can confidently say that our program has been very successful. We have been people working for Microsoft, people working for Google, people working for Bank of Kigari, people working for Ikute Bank, people working for Edu International, booking.com, all those companies. And if you go to any major design agency in Nairobi, maybe Skarnat, School Digital, Ogilvy, Zorojo, you are going to find our students or our graduates who are working there as designers or web developers. Yes. So are those trainings full-time or it's depending on someone's program? It's a very strict program. For the intake program, both the DLP and the AMP within the intake, they are very time-intensive. So for the DLP in some of our center within Nairobi, the training is full day for five days a week, for two weeks. Here in Kisuno, we'll be running the DLP for half a day, five days a week, for two weeks. For the AMP, that's not negotiable. The training has to be full day for five days a week, for 24 weeks in class training and 12 weeks in industrial attachment full day. So they are quite time-intensive and the content is quite packed from the program. If I take you through the program, you're going to see the content of it. It's not just normal computer packages, it goes through the normal computer packages. And we have to teach all these skills within that short duration. And how are you able to mobilize such commitment from a young person who has just finished school and they're like, I'm not going into books again? One, our program is not like an ordinary, it's like a vocation training. We focus on hard sound skills. We are not even testing like you have an exam to do at the end of it. We focus on you acquiring skills. And you try to make our learning to be very fun. You're going to realize if you visit our offices, like over three quarter of a human resource are young people. And we correlate with young people. We even board. We have that board between us and our students. And even it cost me for me to go to become informal to them. I'll be provided they feel accommodated. So when you mention ICT in a normal African setting, it sounds like math. It's difficult. So how are you able to break down to someone for that they can understand that this is important for them? ICT is quite complex. And based on how you stick there, you see on the ICT spectrum, there is like the hard level coding. There is a low level coding. But as we focus on creativity, and anyone can become creative, maybe you, a small kid, or even someone who is aged, and it's not even hard for anyone to to understand coding. And the way we teach, we make it to be even understood is because we focus on practical. We don't teach the only us. Yes, I'm going to add the only here. But by the end of that, if I'm telling you, we need to develop a website, I want to see the website by the end of this. And another thing, I also take hold your hard during the program, I won't tell you to create something that I haven't shown you. So I'll show you how we go about it. Then I'm going to give you like the assignment for you to look at the same, same thing that's there. And again, there is a lot of training that's coming and a lot of people embracing the IC team. So it's becoming widely accepted within our African context. You speak so firmly like a teacher or a mentor. Is it something you also do? I have trained for over 10 years. And actually, to underscore this, I started training when I was in high school. I'm the one who trained our business and history classes in Formula and Formula in the high school that I was there. So I started training from for a long time. When I came to Nairobi in 2008, my sister paid my first course in computer packages, 10 computer packages for five hours by that time. And after three weeks, I finished all the 10 packages. And in January of 2009, I went back to the same college and asked for a training job. And I turned there for another six months until June of 2009. In October 2009, I heard about Nairobi. I applied and that's why I joined Nairobi. I'm a beneficiary of Nairobi. And I graduated in December 2011 with a diploma in multimedia design from Nairobi. Then in October 2012, I went back to Nairobi as a trainer. And I trained there from 2012 to 2017, April. After that, I left and went to the corporate world. But I came back in 2020, October again. And I have been training Nairobots until August this year when I stopped training because I'm kind of focusing on scaling on other regions. Because for the longest, Nairobots has been based in Nairobi. But we thought of scaling to other counties. And in this line, we are focusing in Kisumu and Mombasa. And I have brought the scaling program to Kisumu County. In your training area and as Nairobots growing to other levels, what other challenges have you encountered during that journey? There are a lot of challenges, especially the ICT sector is very dynamic. And you have to always be on top of the things. Today, we are doing things this way. Tomorrow, things are being done differently. You can never afford to sleep. And despite us having other responsibilities, I have to ensure even the curriculum that we train is up to date. I can even sleep today. Tomorrow, I come up with a totally new different curriculum to ensure our curriculum is responsive to the job market. We don't just train, we even listen to our business partner who hire our beneficiary to ensure whatever your training is relevant in the job market. And another challenge that we get, you find some young people who don't take this seriously. And it's a pain because I always tell young people, I got whatever I have where I am today because of Nairobots. If I didn't take it seriously, I couldn't be who I am today. And remember, I came from a disadvantaged background. Despite having finished my class aid, I couldn't make it to the campus. I missed the joint admission board with three points on it. My parents couldn't educate me to campus because one of that felt capable. And was it not for Nairobots? I couldn't have got what I have today. And I'm a proud software developer. I code on a day to day basis. I'm going to create two very complex systems. And I'm happy. But when I see young people playing with these opportunities, that's a sad affair to me. Another thing you may find we don't have like support everywhere we go. They are even parents who don't have a program very well. And although we have been trying to reach the communities to create sensitization for them to be able to decide the program and embrace it. So those are some of the challenges. Another challenge that we have heard is us getting accreditation by Netativator. And because Netativator is Nairobots, we believe in a dynamic curriculum. Netativator, whenever you go to submit for a curriculum, they need like a, they are using quite an outdated curriculum for us. And I need a curriculum that doesn't tire me. I need a curriculum that's going to give this young person an edge to the job market. A skill that young person can work, not even in rockery but internationally. And especially with mostly more job nowadays, I'm looking for people working with modern, most recent and modern technologies. Yes. And there are certain misconceptions around the tech world whereby people say when we get into ICT, it's dangerous. There are dangerous platforms out there. So how do you set the record straight and educate people on that? ICT is like a two-sided coin. It has its own advantages and disadvantages. It has its own benefits, its own dangers. It's like just fire. Fire, it's both dangerous and very useful. But we never say we'll never use fire, right? Yes, we always continue using fire. But if you misuse fire, it's going to burn you, burn the house, or even burn the entire community and the entire country. That's very possible. How we see ICT has the same, same pros and cons. If you're not very careful, you're going to fire yourself in the backside, even on the backside of the road. Because if you're using the internet to scam people, there is an article within our road that can even make you rather job agile centers for that. But also it has its own good side. One, it's creating employment. There I think it also enhances our communication, like how we can communicate to people who are in other places out of Africa or even in this country. It's all possible through the ICT. Another good thing about ICT is how things are changing. Things are changing very fast, rapidly. Long time, like a few years ago, you could only go to a shopping mall and shop there. Nowadays you have the commerce, the online commerce. You're going to shop from the comfort of your home and get your things delivered. And those are, that's one thing, that's an advantage of the ICT. But we can never forsake ICT because of its cons. What we need to do is to create sensitization. And if we do that, people will be more aware of the dangers and be able to avoid them. So as Nairobits, do you create that sensitization as well? Yes, we do that very well. I have teached my students about the dangers of the internet. And we have another program that's an impact program called SIDP, Skills for Inclusive Digital Participation. This one is a very flexible course, happens for at most five days a week, two hours a day, targeting youth, women and people with disabilities. And this one targets cortical excluded groups, like those small bogus who don't know half ICT skills. Imagine taking them a program for five days, for two hours a day, and they can be able to grant digital skills. And they can be able to do, to know how to sell their things online using social platform like WhatsApp, status, Instagram and Facebook. We also teach them about being safe online, even how to create a safe strong password. We also teach them about fake news, especially actually one of the impact that we got from that program because so far you have seen over three thousand young people in young people, women and people with disabilities in Nairobi and Mombasa. One of the feedback that we got was a mother who said, at least I know what my sons or my daughters do, once they get on their phones. That's a very strong message coming from Anelda Lilly. And even ladies who are as old as 65 years of age going through that program. It's very flexible and we even try to teach it in a way that says it's the easiest way. We teach these ladies and these young people and these people with disabilities about government e-services like e-cities and tax filing the KRA portal and so on and so forth, so that they can know like this exists. And even if they go to seek that service in a cyber cafe, they are informed. Even one of, it also came in so hard because we did the program prior to the August election, general election. And a lot of people said we were able to identify the fake news. They can be able to know news from credible sources. So it's our collective responsibility to ensure people are sensitized and they are aware of the dangers also as we disseminate the benefits of the ICT to the communities. Speaking of inclusivity, there are certain youths who are already working in different sectors but would want to join your program. Do you have online courses or online training programs that you help to incorporate them as well? Currently, that's not happening, but they have some good news. In June, we are in the process of developing our LMS, learning management system. And this LMS is supposed now to extract these skills to people who cannot be able to commit full day. It's an online self-running, a self-paced learning that you can do. But on another hand, you're going to use it as our IGV, income-generating venture. Because remember, we are a trust, a non-profit. We rely on donor funding. And sometimes this funding even, they are no longer there. How can you sustain the mainstream program? So when you open the LMS, it will be a paid service. You can get there, check out with your M-Pesa or your credit card and be able to get a course that you can do. You can learn online at your own pace and be able to get our certificate eventually. You spoke of salvaging opportunities. So what can you tell a young person out there who they see the opportunities being grabbed by other people, but they're still waiting for other more opportunities? What can you tell them? Me, what I can tell young people is, first, we need to get the mentality of being given things. I have realized those young people, you're going to call them for a beneficial program, but they're not going to attend it because they are not stupid. I tell young people, your today defines your future. Make an investment today and you're going to reap the benefits tomorrow. My word to them is, if you see these opportunities, grab them and grab them, please, because that can be defining your future. Thank you so much, Martin. I have learned, I have been educated. I will put that into practice. The investment you make today is what will give you fruits tomorrow. Do not worry about the stipend because the skill you will get is more than the stipend. That opportunity you're seeing lying there, but you do not know how to get to it, run for it, you will get the networks, you will get the marketing, and soon enough, you will reap the benefits. You have been watching Youth in Action. I am