UoN Office of Career Services (OCS)

International Yoga Day at UoN

The International Federation of Yoga Professionals, Kenya and the Kenya India Friendship Association in collaboration with the University of Nairobi Career Services celebrated the International Yoga Day on Friday, 21st June 2019 at the University of Nairobi, Main Campus. Students and Staff participated in this unwinding event.

UoN students get an opportunity to make Money as a Content Creators with Scooper

On Thursday 20th of June 2019, the Office of Career Services Hosted a team from Scooper at UoN Main Campus for a briefing session with students on opportunities they have to make money as content creators.

Scooper is a news application Company and part of Transsion Holdings, the makers of Tecno, Infinix and Itel smartphones, that delivers trending and breaking news across Africa. The Scooper App has a 4.6 rating and over 10 million downloads on Playstore. Scooper would like to give UoN students an opportunity to showcase their talent in generating content and writing articles in various disciplines such as sports, health, entertainment, technology, business, politics, etc. and generate revenue.

Students who will enroll for the Scooper Professional Generated Content (PGC) program will get a chance to earn revenue and train for quality content creating as they continue with their studies. Students were given a link (http://cp.scoopernews.com/) through which they would access the backend for the scooper website and sign up for a blog on which they will post their content. Scooper also offered 50 opportunities for the students who have graduated for a full-time paid internship.

Scooper invited students interested in the PGC and internship opportunities to register with them and over 60 students signed up for these opportunities. Selected students will go through a training session on content development to sharpen their writing skills at the scooper offices.

The Office of Career Services appreciates Scooper for taking time to talk to UoN students about “Making Money as Content Creators”. It is hoped that students will take up availed opportunities and make money as content creators.

UoN Students paying attention to Scooper News App briefing

Unilever Kenya Mentors UoN Engineering Students On Career Paths

The Office of Career Services in collaboration with the Engineering Students Association hosted Unilever Kenya on Wednesday 19th June. 2019 at UoN, Main Campus for an Industrial Talk on ‘Choosing a Career Path’. The Team from Unilever consisted of the Vice President, a team from the Human Resource Department, Project Managers, Supply Chain Engineers as well as interns attached to the company.

Unilever is one of the world’s leading consumer goods companies, producing and selling around 400 nutrition, hygiene and personal care range of brands in more than 190 countries.

Delene Fisher, the Vice President Supply Chain EA, and Unilever Tea Plantations at Unilever Kenya Limited gave a presentation to the UoN Engineering students on choosing a career path. The key points that she highlighted that students should consider when choosing a career path include; ensuring you understand what matters to you, looking at the practicalities of your passions and being committed enough to take the next step of making sense of the options available to you.

A short question and answer session followed after the presentation, forming a basis for feedback and interaction with the students on choosing a career path. The students thereafter had a breakout session in which they had one-on-one interactions with the team from Unilever. The discussions centered on matters career options for the engineering students.

The Office of Career Services appreciates Unilever for taking time to talk to UoN Engineering students about ‘Choosing a Career Path’. The UoN Career Office looks forward to a continued partnership with Unilever in offering job and internship opportunities for students.

Huawei Certified Internet Associate Training for UoN Students

Through the partnership between Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd and the UoN Office of Career Services, 40 Students have been trained for the HCIA Routing and Switching Course and are yet to sit for their final certification examinations.

The training commenced on 20th of May, 2019 and ended on 14 of June 2019 after which the students sat for a mock examination on 17th of June 2019.

HCIA-Routing & Switching certification validates the knowledge and skills required for basic configuration and maintenance of small to medium-sized networks.

HCIA-Routing & Switching curriculum includes, but is not limited to the following:
Network fundamentals;
Basic connection methods of popular networks;
Basic network construction;
Troubleshooting of common network faults;
Installation and commissioning of Huawei routing and switching devices.

The students await the final exam which will be done on the 24th of June 2019.

RADA App Officially Launched During Nairobi Innovation week 2019

The Mobile health application developed by students and praised by Deputy Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, Prof. Julius Ogeng’o as “an application that addresses reality among the youth”,  was officially launched during the Nairobi Innovation Week 2019 on Thursday, June 13, 2019, in Taifa Hall.

According to research undertaken by UNESCO and the university through the Centre for HIV Prevention and Research (CHIVPR) on issues affecting the youth and how the issues could be tackled, students spend more time on Smartphones more than any other thing, reaching them through a Mobile application would be the best way to capture their attention so as to tackle the issues of mental health, alcohol and drug abuse, sexual and reproductive health.

UNESCO Regional Director, Ms. Anne Theresa hailed the University of Nairobi and the students that took part in this initiative. She also charged the University with a mandate to bring change through this innovation not only at the UoN but to all the other institutions of higher learning in Africa.

UoN Vice Chancellor, Prof. Peter Mbithi appreciated the support that all partners offered (UNESCO, Ministry of health, NASCOP, NACADA, Sexual and Reproductive Health,  I choose Life ) in seeing the success of this innovation.

 

Silmak Agencies scoops an award of Kshs. 700,000 at NIW 2019

Taking up position one in the Growth stage startups, Silmak Agencies won a Cash Prize of KSh 700,000 from the Kenya National Innovation Agency (KENIA), Mentorship by Chandaria Capital, 100% Scholarship to the Sinapis’ Entrepreneur Academy’s 4 month programme, Purchase and hosting of domain name (.co.ke) for a period of one year from the Kenya Network Innovation Centre (KeNIC).

Kencoco and Bentos Energy came in second and third respectively.

UoN Staff And Students tap into Online Jobs!

The Government of Kenya through the Ministry of ICT launched the Ajira Digital Program at the University of Nairobi on August 04, 2018. The program aims to train youth and equip them with the necessary technical skills to enable them to tap into the huge potential of online jobs.

During the first and second cohort of the Ajira Digital program training in 2018, over 300 students were trained. The third cohort training at the University of Nairobi was held from 20th May to 14th June 2019 with 505 students going through the training (287 male, 218 female). A hundred staff was also taken through a briefing session on online work.

Different students were trained each week for the four weeks and the content covered during the training gave them technical skills on how to register accounts in the top online jobs websites such as Upwork, Fiverr, Guru, and Gotranscript. The students were trained on how to tap into various online jobs such as Virtual Assistant, Transcription, Content writing, Transcription, Software Development, and Digital Marketing among others.

The Ajira Digital Training Program seeks to place Kenya choice for skilled labor for other multinational companies. The program also promotes local companies to create digital jobs. It is believed that as more youth and middle-class citizens access digital jobs, this will translate to increase online opportunities and growth of Kenya’s GDP.

The University of Nairobi through the Office of Career Services is proud to partner with the Ministry of ICT in delivering the Ajira Digital Training Program. The future is in online work.

Elimika Youth Summit at Nairobi Innovation Week

The summit was a special mentorship session for youth drawn from various counties including Makueni, Kwale, Homabay, Nairobi, Garissa, Embu and Mombasa among others.

Speaking during the event, chief guest, Prof. Githu Muigai called upon the youth to continuously educate themselves in order to stay relevant in the modern world. “Top 5 biggest companies in the world like Facebook, Instagram, Airbnb and Spotify were created by young people which is proof enough that knowledge is key.”  Said Prof Muigai. The former Attorney General of Kenya also urged young people to be aggressive and innovative. “You have to take yourself seriously because there is never an invitation to the table rather you storm to the table with an innovation and skills that cannot be taken for granted.”

Prof. Githu Muigai addressing the youth

Vice Chancellor Prof. Peter Mbithi on his part asked the youth to believe in the endless possibilities of the Kenyan dream.  The VC represented by Prof Bernard Aduda said, “Kuwajibika means taking responsibility as a citizen of this country by providing solutions to issues affecting society.”

Principal College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Prof Enos Njeru asked the youth to take up risks without fear of failure because failure provided useful lessons for successful ventures.

Mr. Raymond Ochieng, Secretary, Ministry of Public Service, Youth and Gender Affairs urged youth to take advantage of opportunities provided by the government. “The government has set up numerous funds and resources for the youth yet just a few are taking advantage of them.”

Prof Judith Bahemuka, UNESCO/UNITWIN chairperson expressed her pride over the achievements of the program which started five years ago. “We will not stop until our youth are empowered to stand up on their own, we will build capacity for them, we shall mentor them to start and prosper in their business ventures and we shall also make sure that our youth are actively involved in decision-making processes,” she remarked.

Other speakers during the event included Dr. Lamin Abdulrahman, Programme Specialist, UNESCO, Ms. Jacqueline Njeru, Deputy Director KNATCOM, Prof. Winnie Mitullah, Prof. Timothy Waema and Ms. Ntenya Mule from Antara Health among others.

Industrial Site Visit To Davis And Shirtliff

Students drawn from the School of Engineering (Mechanical, Civil and Electrical Engineering disciplines) visited the Davis and Shirtliff (D&S) workshop in Industrial area on Wednesday 13th June 2019 for an industrial site visit.

The Office of Career Services has been mandated to link students to the industry and such visits are organized for the students to experience the industry work environment and how the theory they learn in class is translated to practical work.

Davis and Shirtliff is a water and energy solutions provider focusing on offering products and services such as water pumps, borehole services, generators, Solar panels, swimming pools, water treatment, and irrigation accessories.

The students had a two-hour tour of the workshops and sales shop led by Lena Muturi, an Engineer at D & S and a one-hour presentation on what it takes to work with Davis & Shirtliff. Apart from the Technical skills which most of the students pose, Charles Kebaso, the Engineering Manager at D & S emphasized on the need for Social and Interpersonal Skills and a positive attitude for the students to excel in their career. In addition, Charles emphasized the need for every engineer to be outgoing, confident and assertive for them to be able to communicate on the work they do. As Charles put is an engineer’s income increases with an increase in the prosperity of citizens and the nations he/she is working for.

The Office of Career Services looks forward to partnering with Davis and Shirtliff in more Industrial Visits, Attachments, Internships, and Jobs for UoN students.

UoN Students at Davis and Shirtliff Plant.

The 21st Century Graduate

The demand for skilled workers is on an upward trend. The Manpower reports indicate that 31 percent of employers throughout the world struggled to find qualified workers because of “a talent mismatch between workers’ qualifications and the specific skill sets and combinations of skills employers want.”

The 21st Century graduate needs to have a skill set that will make them globally competitive.  Some the 21st-century skills that graduates need to learn for the modern job market includes digital literacy skills,  collaboration and communication skills, entrepreneurial skills, networking skills, ability to analyze and utilize information, think creatively and learn constantly, flexibility and problem-solving skills.

Once graduates acquire these valuable skills, they will have an edge over other graduates; they will possess the ability to learn quickly, accurately process information and use the information to make objective decisions.

The 21st-century skills are indeed the future for students’ academic and career success.

Johnson Ireri Kinyua

Director of Career Services