Topic: Leveraging on Global Job Opportunities

Date: Today (Thursday July 2, 2020)

Time: 2.00 – 3.00pm

Venue: Google Meets

Link: meet.google.com/nvo-ynhd-eos

Students and Staff are welcome to participate in the Webinar.

The Office of Career Services organizes career fairs for students annually. The Recruitment Career Fairs are beneficial because they enable the employers to meet the potential employees. The career fairs are important because they provide the students with a chance to learn about career related issues such as choosing a career, networking skills and opportunities for securing internships or even jobs.

In an address to the University of Nairobi community, the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama announced that he has asked the Senate to review cases of suspended students with a view of readmitting them.

“A committee, chaired by Prof. Horace Ochanda, has been set up to review the cases of the expelled students and consider reinstatement,” he announced.  “We must exercise the core value of care. We need to give these students a second chance to complete their studies and graduate.”

The Friday briefing held on June 26, 2020, also bore goodies for staff.

“I am pleased to announce that the government has sent funds to pay the enhanced clinical allowances for our doctors. This is being processed for payment,” said Prof. Kiama. “In addition, the Government will send funds to cater for the collective bargaining agreement signed sometime back. Once the funds are in our accounts, I commit to ensuring that it is paid out.”

Prof. Kiama commended various departments coming up with solutions mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic. He mentioned the Department of Chemistry for producing soap, the School of Pharmacy for the sanitizers and the School of Engineering for developing a technology that will help doctors monitor ventilators remotely. In addition, the Dental School and the University Health Services are the beneficiaries of personal protective equipment (PPE) donated by several donors.

The VC urged the UoN community to stay safe and observe the health guidelines issued by the government.

“COVID-19 is real,” he said.

Click hear to watch the VC’s address

Once again, the University of Nairobi has made it to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 ranking.

UoN is ranked 801-1000, with an overall score of 22.2-28.2 and is the only University in Kenya to appear in this year’s list.

The Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2020 includes almost 1,400 universities across 92 countries, standing as the largest and most diverse university rankings ever to date.

The table is based on 13 carefully calibrated performance indicators that measure an institution’s performance across teaching, research, knowledge transfer and international outlook.

In Africa, the University of Cape Town in South Africa comes first at position 136, followed by other South African and Egyptian Universities.

The only university ranking to be independently audited by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, and trusted worldwide by students, teachers, governments and industry experts.

The performance indicators are grouped into five areas namely teaching (the learning environment), research (volume, income and reputation), citations (research influence), international outlook (staff, students and research) and industry income (knowledge transfer).

For the fourth year in a row, the University of Oxford leads the rankings in first place, while the University of Cambridge is third. The California Institute of Technology has gone up three places to clinch the second position, while Stanford, Yale, Harvard and Imperial College London are in the top ten.

Indeed there is room for improvement in UoN’s performance in the rankings. The available data on the digital space about the University of Nairobi ought to be consistently cleaned up and updated to reflect the growth over the years especially in matters academics and research output.

Student ambassadors are very vital in most institutions of higher learning. They address the needs of all students. They serve as a lesson to student organizations and assist in the development and implementation of specific projects. Their participation provides an invaluable link to the student body and representatives for the Office Career Services  as well as selected academic departments. They also establish meaningful supportive relationship with student’s faculty and staff. Student ambassadors create a sense of belonging and develop a sense of connection.

The Office Career Services has enrolled over 1500 student brand ambassadors that have been supported by various companies such as Workmate virtual Jobs Finder, International School of Advertising, Infinix, Huawei, and Ajira Digital among others. The students act as the ambassadors of the Career Office to the rest of the student community and benefit from trainings and placement for internship opportunities.

The Office of Career Services on June 19, 2020 hosted a Career Webinar in partnership with the Unilever Academy on “Preparing for Employment in Today’s Digital World”. The Webinar was hosted live on the Cisco Webex Platform. Over 100 students attended the webinar.

The speaker for this webinar was Michael Gathu, the Growth Manager at Unilever Kenya. Moderating the questions was Brian Amani, the Employer Brand Executive, Unilever. The Office of Career Services was represented by Johnson Kinyua, Director Career Services and Naomi Nyaboga the Chief Information Officer.  The Career Office has been running series of webinars in partnership with Unilever since May 2020 as part of mitigating the effects of covid-19.

In his presentation, Michael highlighted the main types of work and why it is important for the students to know where they fit in well if they are to excel in the job market.

1. Creative: Unique, imaginative, non routine, and autonomous.
2. Skilled: Standardized, talent driven, professional, and directed.
3. Rote: Interchangeable, routinized, outsourceable, and managed.
4. Robotic: Algorithmic, computerized, efficient, and purchased.

Unemployment and underemployment are high around the world in this 21^st century. It has been said that Robots kill jobs but they do create jobs, too. It is therefore important for students to be ready for the future of work. To be prepared for the future of work, then active learning, active experiments and active branding are all critical.

Learning never ends. Immediately one lands a job, it if vital to keep learning new skills and knowledge in your area of expertise. To be original, you must become an inventor, always strive to create something new in your filed of work. Take advantage of the Free LinkedIn Learning courses and Coursera among other online platforms offering free courses particularly during this covid-19 period. Quoting Alvin Toffler “The illiterate of the 21^st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and learn.

Personal branding is critical as one prepares for the job market. Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are – Malcom Forbes. One’s value is way much more than just character. It is all about your purpose; everything you do is about your purpose ranging from your career aspirations, tasks that you are proud of, tasks you prioritize, how you carry yourself. Mastering yourself will give you true power to explore your career potential and know your limits.

In conclusion, Michael emphasized on the importance of thinking out of the box and not letting failure put you down.  Failure really is success in progress.

The Office of Career Service is every year mandated to engage in the recruitment of prospective high school students to consider joining the institution. In so doing, the office will:

a.) Provide details on various aspects of student’s life at each institution that will include testimonials from current students, parents, alumni and staff

b.)The office will use informative brochures at recruitment events including most attractive features at the institution and its programs already with name, phone number and email of a specific recruitment person for prospective students to contact directly

c.) Plan recruitment events in conjunction with high school principals and teachers to allow us access to high schools

d.) At the recruitment events, address obstacles to enrollment e.g. if students will need financial aid or specific courses (bridging courses) before attending universities and tertiary institutions.

The Office of Career Services is implementing this in partnership with the Academic Division. The Office also takes advantage of the Annual Nairobi International Trade Fair to offer career guidance to high school students who visit the UoN stand.

The International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (IDADA) celebrations will be marked virtually on June 26, 2020 from 2.00 pm to 4.00 pm.  The theme is “Better Knowledge for Better Care.”

Panelists will discuss the effects of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, especially during this COVID-19 period, how to promote health seeking behavior and lifestyle changes among students and staff.

Participants will be able to experience a dynamic and interactive virtual meeting.

You are welcome to attend the function virtually. The link will be shared with you.

 Follow dynamic and interactive discussions on this link https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NDg5ZDI2OWItYzJlNS00YmJiLWIyNGEtMWRiNmVmMjgyOTk4%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%226e2cc058-79af-4df8-92e6-ee6e0d1dea3e%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22df9e5966-1381-43c4-be16-b9597bfa71de%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d

The gallant sports men and women who have brought glory to the University of Nairobi and have flown the University flag high not just in Kenya, but in Africa and across the world have been honoured today on, June 25, 2020 in an event that took place at Taifa Hall, Main Campus.

In a ceremony where leading sports personalities from the student community were given trophies and certificates for their exemplary performance, the University of Nairobi Vice Chancellor, Prof. Stephen Kiama said that sports occupy a big part of human life and that it is used to build strong bonds within communities. It instills desirable virtues in societies. “Sports teaches us that you can win or lose.  It is good to learn such virtues early in life. Sports helps in character formation. We shall continue to provide holistic education, with a fair balance of curricular and extracurricular activities,” he said.

The Vice Chancellor, added that the University of Nairobi has made significant investments in sports facilities. He encouraged stakeholders to continue supporting various teams. “Sports has become big business in our world today. He recognized the important part sports plays in increasing the brand visibility of the University of Nairobi. “Sports teams can easily popularize our brand. We can work together with corporate entities for mutual benefit. Rugby, hockey, basketball have contributed to UoN brand,” he remarked.  “Time is ripe for sports scholarship in Kenya. We can partner with companies to help students pursue academics and sports,” he observed.

In his concluding remarks, he congratulated all the winners. He urged everyone to cultivate a culture of hard work, discipline and zeal for excellence, the virtues that sports teach. “These athletes have developed such skills that will help them achieve their goals in their life,” he said.

Prof. Julius Ogeng’o, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academics Affairs, observed that sports is very effective in building teamwork and rigorous exercises involved helps the body build immunity and fight off diseases.   “Blessed are those who give. Please continue supporting our sports teams,” he said as he thanked the event sponsors.

Director of Sports, Mr. Mbaabu Mureithi narrated the journey of persistence and hard work that students have exhibited during the 2019/2020 sports calendar year. Various teams have managed to conquer East Africa, Africa and World Championships, flying the UoN flag high. “Last year, Roman Ochanda, represented the University of Nairobi in World University games in Italy. That is like the Olympics of University games,” he said.   He as well took the opportunity to thank the sponsors; Techno Mobile, Brookside, University of Nairobi Alumni Association, I&M Bank, Primewood Supplies, Foot Print, Nation Media Group, Special Olympics Kenya, Switch TV, Ebenezer Fantacies among others. The sponsors have been very keen in providing sports uniforms to various teams as well as sports equipment.  Techno Mobile has been partnering with UoN in branding the university sports team with kits.

Congratulations  to all the winners.

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