UoN Office of Career Services (OCS)

UNOPS Job Opportunities

The United Nations Office of Projects Services (UNOPS) has exciting job opportunities;

1.                Deputy Programme Manager

2.                Senior Project Manager

The vacancy announcements are via the following links:

https://jobs.unops.org/pages/viewvacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=19671

https://jobs.unops.org/pages/viewvacancy/VADetails.aspx?id=19538

NOTE:

1)      Female qualified candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

2)      Work-life harmonization: UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.

3)      We have a progressive policy on Work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types.

4) Duty Station: Mogadishu is a non-Family station

5) Duty Station: Nairobi is a Family station

Writing a selling resume

Are you in pursuit of a job?

Every job seeker should think of a resume as a form of “self-advertisement” that sums up one’s experience on one page. A resume is one of the most important pieces of a job application.

So what is the secret to catching the attention of the employer?

Employers spend an average of about 2 seconds on a resume before deciding whether or not to actually read it.

Therefore, your resume has to stand out. Ensure the resume;

  • Grabs the attention of employers and recruiters
  • Sells your strongest skills and accomplishments
  • Shows how you are a match for a position or project
  • And most importantly, gets you a job interview!

The important information to capture on a resume includes;

  • Work experience and qualifications
  • Contact information
  • Education
  • Relevant skills

Search for a relevant resume template online today and customize your resume to and you a job interview for your dream job. All the best!

Procedure of issuing Telkom SIM Cards to UoN Students

The University of Nairobi in an effort to promote learning among its students during this COVID-19 period has entered into a partnership with Telkom to offer bundles to students for learning. for students to receive bundles, they are required to have a Telkom SIM card. 
UoN students who you already have a Telkom line are required to update the number on their student profile contact details at the SMIS portal. You do not need to obtain a new Telkom line to have access to #SomanaTelkom bundles.
 
Please inform a friend.

UoN students to acquire Telkom lines for online learning data

This is a step by step procedure to be followed by UoN students to acquire Telkom lines for online learning that has been facilitated by the University.

1. Students to register their intent for facilitation of data bundles by updating their profile in the SMIS portal indicating their preferred Telkom outlet.

2. Requests received at ICT Centre are processed and forwarded to respective colleges for review and approval.

3. ICT Centre sends approved list to Telkom Kenya with instructions to configure and activate the lines.

4. Telkom activates the Sim card and sends to the Telkom outlet(selected by the student)

5. Student receives an alert from their preferred Telkom outlet to go and collect the Sim card.

Note:All Students should liaise with their Heads of Department on class time tables.

Those with Telkom cards should share the number with the University for activation

There is a ray of hope for Kenya in COVID-19 fight says UoN Expert

The Ministry of Health (MoH) announced the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Kenya on 13th March, 2020.

MoH went ahead and came up with projections of the COVID-19 cases in the country and announced precautionary measures to curb the spread of the disease.

So far, current numbers fall short of the ministry’s earlier predictions, giving a ray of hope to the country in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic.

Professor Omu Anzala, a virologist and immunologist at KAVI-Institute of Clinical Research (KAVI-ICR) at the University of Nairobi is confident that Kenya is going to win the war against COVID-19.

According to him, projections by MoH were arrived at based on worst case scenario and what had transpired in other countries where cases of COVID-19 had been reported earlier.

Also see: VIDEO: Corona virus demystified by UoN experts

“The data was arrived at based on worst case scenario but now if you look at the way our epidemic is evolving you can see that the curve is not following that, so to some extend something is happening,” he said.

However, Prof. Anzala was quick to point out that it is too early for Kenya to start celebrating saying that they want to critically look at what is going to happen this month and next month before coming up with a conclusion.

“I urge all Kenyans to adhere to the laid down precautionary measures then end of May we can begin to look at what is going on and the story might be different, it is too early to make any conclusion right now,” Prof. Anzala says.

As of Wednesday 15th April, 2020, the number of confirmed cases in Kenya stood at 225.

21st Century Recruiting and Placement Strategies

In this 21st century, career placement is now increasingly being given priority by Universities. Like majority of Universities world over, the University of Nairobi is restructuring its career services through the Office of Career Services. The career services field is now undergoing a major paradigm shift to meet the current needs.

To effectively manage the students transition from University to the workplace, UoN has put in place strategies for students’ skills, personal and career development involving employer engagements. The office is promoting professional development among students by encouraging students to take up professional courses such as ACCA, Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) and Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) among others. This is achieved by partnerships with the different institutions offering the courses and encouraging students to take up the professional courses. CIPR for instance is being offered at UoN as a professional course open to UoN students, staff and outsiders.

The Career Office also promotes student interactions with employers and this helps students to be able to communicate with potential employers in a mature professional way. UoN taps on the strength of alumni in its employer engagement strategies. Alumni help share open opportunities in their institutions, share information on internship opportunities, offer career talks and participate in career development programs and mentor students.

The most on-campus UoN programs engaging employers include career talks, career clinics, career fairs, industrial visits and adjunct lectures from industry partners. Of importance to the Career Office is to offer a wide range of services to employers to give them options of participation and offer a match between employer needs and student interests.

 

Women in Tech Career Talk and Mentorship Session hosted by Career Office and Huawei

Technical courses as well as technical jobs have in the past been male dominated. These are jobs that require hands on experience and most of the time they are physically and psychologically involving hence the misconstruction that only the male can cope with such courses and jobs. However, in the recent past, there has been a mass increase in the number of women taking up these courses and subsequently the jobs and the most amazing part of it is that they have excelled just as the male counterparts or even exceed and dwarfed them.

So what has brought about this change in the uptake of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) courses by females? It could be the realization that skills learnt have nothing to do with one’s gender but also the increased sensitization for the “girl child “to take up STEM courses. The Office of Career Services in partnership with Huawei Women in Technology hosted a career talk targeting female students enrolled for STEM courses at the University of Nairobi. The career talk’s theme was “Transforming Lives through Digitization” and was held on 13th March 2020 at the UoN Towers, 4th floor.

The Director of the Women in Technology program at Huawei, Maureen Mwaniki an alumnus of UON from the School of Engineering talked about the need to mentor the girl child to take up technical courses through providing resources and ICT equipment for girls. This is being promoted through Huawei’s mentorship program dubbed ‘Women in Technology Huawei (WITH). The purpose of the program is to attract more women into the Tech job market and encourage partner customers to recommend 8 women-owned suppliers to Huawei.

Laura Chite, the CEO at CIO East Africa in collaboration with HerNovation, a company deliberately budding women in technology is supporting women by offering them mentorship especially those pursuing technical courses in various institutions and levels as well as those in early careers to encourage them and to propel their careers to higher heights in the corporate and social world. The women are equipped with networking skills to enable them exploit all the available platforms of interaction with potential employers or clients. Equally, Laura laid emphasis on the women to acquire soft skills such as public speaking, people management, critical thinking and analytical skills to help them in developing their careers.

Esther Muchiri, the CEO eMentoring Africa (eMA) encouraged women to be their own mentors, make informed careers choices, set their goals and have a clear laid down plan on the ways to achieve their goals. Esther has a passion for providing guidance, counselling, empowerment and motivation to students and youth and through her passion, she is also reaching out to women in Tech to offer them mentorship.

Aprielle Moraa, the Managing Director, Infosphere narrated her career growth journey that has not been a walk in the park. She insisted on women especially the ones doing technical courses to never let other people look down on them and they should work hard despite the circumstances surrounding them.

Catherine Muraga, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) Sidian Bank said that one must be a brand in what he or she does. She also had a word of encouragement for the women in tech that dreams take time and that patience is a key factor in achieving one’s dream. She advised the ladies in tech to choose friends wisely since the power of friends has the ability to build or destroy one’s career. While noting that we all have areas of improvement, one must not seek validation from wrong places but rather be objective in looking for solutions to challenges they face. “Please take certifications after completing your studies. I remember being challenged by my male colleagues to take Microsoft Certifications. I did the certifications and immediately I completed them, my salary doubled,” said Catherine Muraga. Professional certification courses are now taken seriously by potential employers.

Barbra Okelo, a Data Scientist at the Strategy Department at Safaricom encouraged women to never settle for less since one gets what they negotiate for, she insisted on aiming higher in life.

Su Shuqi, the Head of the ICT Academy at Huawei Technologies, shared her personal success story on how she had to defy all odds to be where she is today. She further advised women not to let anything hinder their success but rather to be determined and focused.

The students were told to gear up for the 4th industrial revolution that will create millions of jobs. Such technologies like artificial intelligence, internet of things, robotics, machine learning, and data science will create millions of jobs in future. Students were challenged to position and prepare themselves for the future jobs  by mastering new skills online.

This mentorship session and career talk was appreciated by the students in attendance. The female speakers who are soaring heights in the respective companies where they work inspired the students and gave them hope to realise their dreams. The Director of the UoN Office of Career Services, Mr. Johnson Kinyua gave a vote of thanks to the great women who came to mentor and empower young women in STEM. The office plans to hold more career talks and mentorship sessions for the students in a bid to empower them as they lay foundations for their careers.

 

 

UoN Embraces Technology for Teaching and Learning during this Covid-19 period

The outbreak of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic disrupted so many functions and operations across all sectors in all countries in the world.

Following the announcement of the first COVID-19 case in Kenya, the government directed all learning institutions to be shut down as one of the measures to stop the spread of the disease.

In response to the directive and to ensure that learning continuous, the University of Nairobi (UoN) embarked on a programme to train its staff and students to enable them conduct teaching and learning online.

The staff were trained on all available online teaching and learning tools and classes have already been rolled out.

Dr. Diana Marangu, a lecturer in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health at the School of Medicine has started teaching using these tools and says they are effective during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have been able to use these tools to share materials and interact with students through lectures and discussion sessions and chats. I have found classroom best for posting content before the lecture. This makes the students aware of what is going to be taught,” Dr. Marangu says.

She says the online teaching and learning tools are quite intuitive to use, and she keeps learning new functionalities every day. The reception by her students has been so good.

“The feedback from the students has been great! They are equally excited and very interactive during the sessions as they share presentations, generate discussions, ask questions in real time during the sessions, and also use the chat function,” the lecturer says.

Dr. Marangu’s sentiments were echoed by one of her students Bryan Mwendwa, who attended the lecture online.

“I am honestly impressed by the online lectures. Even without COVID-19 it has been more impactful that the physical classes. I think the comfort at home, no hustle of traffic and early morning rush makes all of us clear at mind and easier to digest and interact.

I felt like a postgraduate student again. This is an opportunity for the University to come up with a similar platform and encourage distant learning we can impact many more doctors in the counties,”Mwendwa said.

Dr. Marangu says these platforms are extremely useful during this Covid-19 pandemic when there is need to exercise physical distancing to help flatten the COVID-19 curve.

She looks forward to using both Zoom and the Google Classroom for teaching purposes even after the COVID-19 crisis is over.

“I think we can also leverage these online applications to conduct some practical sessions for instance by making or sharing videos to demonstrate and have the students demonstrate back the specific skill they have learned,” she says.

At the Department of Surgery, Prof. Nimrod Mwangómbe also held an online lecture to postgraduate students in neurosurgery. The lecture was attended by about 20 students. Also in attendance were Dr. Julius Kiboi, the Chair of the Department, Dr. Chris Musau and Dr. Vincent Wekesa.

Dr. Kiboi said lecturers in his department have found online teaching to be effective during this time of COVID-19 pandemic.

In a communication to teaching staff on 4th April, 2020, UoN Vice Chancellor Prof. Stephen Kiama said no one should be left behind and lectures should be recorded and shared with all students.

“For the sake of students who may have challenges to connect for some reasons, including timing of the lecture, it would be appropriate to record the sessions and share with them via email or WhatsApp,” the VC said.

He also urged them to hold tutorials and small group discussions with students. For post graduate students the VC asked lecturers to schedule seminar presentations and Journal clubs where the students may present and even lead in the discussions.

AICAT 2020/2021 Program Interviews Conducted

The Arava International Center for Agriculture Training (AICAT) was established in Sapir Israel,in 1994 with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture.In early 2016, President Uhuru Kenyatta and Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement dubbed “The Jerusalem Declaration” or the “Declaration on Collaboration in Water and Irrigation” that would see fresh graduates from institutions of higher learning attend an 11-month practical training course in Israel.

The AICAT center trains over 1,000 students annually from Academic Institutes under 3 different programs: Diploma program, MSc program in Plant Science in cooperation with Tel-Aviv Univeristy and short term courses in Advanced Agricultural Studies.

The Center’s diploma program is based on the principle of Learning by Doing. The winning combination of practical training on an advanced and modern farm, theoretical studies, professional guided tours of the area and community life provides the students a unique and rich experience in Agriculture.

The Careers Service Office carried out interviews for this annual internship program on 11th and 12 March 2020 at the UON towers 4th floor. The applications for the same had attracted a large number of applicants both those undertaking Agricultural and Veterinary studies and all of them were invited for the interview. There was a 99% turn out for the interviews with 75 of the 78 attending.

Compilation of the results is ongoing with those who shall be successful are set to be invited for a second interview. Successful candidates from the second interview that will be carried out by a team from AICAT will be admitted to the program. This will be the fourth cohort of students being sent to Israel for this agricultural diploma program based on ‘learning by doing’.