With the serious challenge of unemployment and underemployment in Kenya and the youth being the most affected and many of them in despair, there is a dire need to repackage the students to enable them fit in the evolving job market.

It has been proven that when the Industry, Government and Universities work together, a country will always develop faster. Kenya now requires the production of competent manpower to deliver its development agenda both for the vision 2030 and the Big 4 agenda. The University is open to the private sector and the Government to forge grounded partnerships aimed at developing Kenya and producing employable market ready graduates.

It’s against this background that the University of Nairobi through the Office of Career Services has established the “UoN Skills Centre” to offer different kinds of trainings to build on technical, leadership, entrepreneurship, soft and life skills of its students in partnership with industry partners.  The aim is to skill students with the required skills for the job market, empower them, build on their innovativeness and encourage them to become entrepreneurs.  The Career Office also holds Career Fairs across its campuses to link students to industry partners for them to secure internship or job opportunities. The Industry partners also hold career talks for the students to mentor and brand them for employment.

INTRODUCTION

The University of Nairobi Office of Career Services will hold a Career Fair at the UoN Main Campus from 5-6 December, 2019 from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm each day. The theme for the event is ‘Skilling Graduates for the Job Market’.

The UoN Office of Career Services (OCS) is a new establishment obligated to develop essential competencies among graduates to make them employable. The vision of the Career Office is to produce holistic graduates who are prepared for entry into the workforce and ready to take up entrepreneurial activities.

This is achieved through development of graduates’ skills, competencies and attitudes to enhance their employability and entrepreneurship capacity. The goal is to produce skilled, empowered, competitive, employable, enterprising and innovative graduates ready for the job and entrepreneurship market.

With the serious challenge of unemployment and underemployment in Kenya and the youth being the most affected and many of them in despair, there is a dire need to repackage the students to enable them fit in the evolving job market. The Career Office is striving to achieve this in partnership with Industry Partners to empower students with information on current workplace demands in the form of knowledge and skills and presentation and branding aspects of a prospective job seeker or entrepreneur.

OBJECTIVES

  1. To provide a platform for industry partners to link up with UoN students for recruitment in their Graduate Trainee Programs, internship programs or for job opportunities in their companies;
  2. To facilitate career talks for students to brand them for employment;
  3. To provide and facilitate a networking opportunity for industry partners and students;
  4. To share information with students on opportunities available in the job market;
  5. To expose students to the world of ‘online/virtual work’.

OUTPUTS

  1. Partnership and Linkages established between the Career Office and Industry partners;
  2. Well-groomed students ready for entry into the job market;
  3. Students working online and earning an income.

 CAREER FAIR ACTIVITIES

  1. Exhibitions
  2. Career Talks
  3. One-on-one Career Guidance
  4. Career Mentorship