The University Of Nairobi Office Of Career Services applauds the Chancellor Dr. Vijoo Rattansi for her generous and philanthropic spirit of enhancing students’ welfare through a number of initiatives;

1. Rattansi Educational Trust – Bursaries and scholarships to the needy students amounting to Kshs 12 million per year
2. Donation of equipment and books – in Mombasa and Parklands Campus libraries worth 5 million
3. UoN Skills Centre – donated furniture for the newly established skills center worth Kshs 8.9 million
4. Ajira Kazi Connect Container – at the gate for enrolling, training and refreshing graduates on Ajira Digital program worth Kshs 750,000.00
5. Chancellor’s Career Fair – sponsoring the 1^st CCF in 2018 worth Kshs 1.4m and mobilizing over 100 Industrial Partners who employed over 100 graduates.
6. Care as Core Value – the Chancellor has been a crusader of the “Care” as a core value in the university system by demonstrating through deeds.
7. Rotary Scholarships – Chancellor through her friendship with Rotary Club has initiated several programs such as scholarships and tree planting in the University.

Long live Chancellor for the kind heart of generosity to humanity!

Following the Jerusalem Declaration, an MoU signed between President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya and H.E. Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of the State of Israel signed on 23rd February 2016,   the University of Nairobi among other Agricultural, Water and Irrigation Training related institutions sent top students to the Arava International Centre for Agricultural Training (AICAT) to study an Advanced Diploma in Agriculture and Agribusiness.

Ten students from the University of Nairobi’s Faculty of Agriculture were among the 120 students flagged off by the former Cabinet Secretary for Water and Irrigation, Hon. Eugene Wamalwa on July 21, 2017, for 11-month advanced agriculture & irrigation training in Israel.

The ten students started their training on 1st August 2017 for an 11 months program on Advanced Agriculture and Irrigation at Arava International Centre for Agricultural Training (AICAT) in Israel where they were attached to work with farmers in Kibbutz and Moshav Jewish forms of settlement. The students lived in farms in the Arava region where and were exposed to the high technologies and the advanced agriculture in Israel.

The UoN students successfully completed their one-year practical internship in Israel and graduated on June 5, 2018. The gender composition of the ten (10) pioneer students for this program was 7 males and 4 females.

The program has impacted on the graduates’ life in different aspects including socially, academically, and economically. The students have gained leadership skills and can now become community leaders and agricultural mentors; they have both practical and theoretical tools in food safety and security and knowledge on how to successfully establish agribusinesses and model farms. When they return home, the graduates will easily integrate professionally in both the public and private sector.

The next batch of 15 students for the 2018/2019 cohort left for Israel during the week of July 23-28, 2018. The University is proud to partner with AICAT in this hands-on training initiative in Agriculture and Agribusiness.

On 13^th August 2018, the CS for Education Amb (Dr) Amina Mohammed officially launched the University Of Nairobi Office Of Career Services (UoNOCS). The Office under four pillars will offer the following services:

Tsinghua University and the University of Nairobi signed a Memorandum of Understanding on September 1, 2017, to engage in cooperation and exchange in cooperative education and research activities for the mutual benefit of both institutions. In nurturing this collaborative partnership with Tsinghua University, UoN has planned a two weeks program for 2 faculty and 20 students from Tsinghua from 26^th August to 8^th September 2018. The program exposed the students and faculty to the Kenyan Regional Organizations, Government and Politics, State and Civil societies, Culture, Gender, Governance Bilateral Relations, Development milestones and the Foreign Policy of Kenya among other topics.

Photo (L-R): Mrs. Zilpher Owiti (Program Manager Ajira Digital Program, Prof. Julius Ogeng’o DVC Academic Affairs, Mr.  Jerome Ochieng, the Principal Secretary for ICT and Innovation and Johnson Kinyua, Ag. Director, UoN Office of Career Services 

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 targets training 2,000 students and equipping them with the necessary technical skills to enable them to tap into the huge potential of online jobs. Ajira Digital program first cohort trained 120 students for a period of five days. The program attracted over 1,000 students who will be trained in phases.   So far over 400 students have been trained on online jobs and have earned over Kshs 400,000 in the last two months.

After the 5 days training at the University of Nairobi (between 5-10 August 2018), the students joined President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kisii Stadium on August 12, 2018, for the International Day of Youth where they demonstrated their Online Working prowess.

President Uhuru Kenyatta with some of the students trained on Ajira Digital Program displaying on how they work online during the International Youth Day held in Kisii on 12th August 2018

On September 20, 2018, the Cabinet Secretary for ICT Joe Mucheru officially launched the Ajira Digital Program at University of Nairobi and also commissioned the “Kazi Connect” container, a platform that will allow employers to engage all the 84,000 UoN students and to unlock thousands of jobs.

The Chancellor of UoN Dr. Vijoo Rattansi sponsored the Ajira Digital Centre at the University of Nairobi for training over 2,000 students on online jobs.

On Dec 18, 2018, the UoN hosted Jobs Recruitment Fair by 26 Chinese multinational companies (MNCs) at Great Court, the main campus. Over 50 graduates of UoN got their dream job through this fair

The Chancellor of the University of Nairobi Dr. Vijoo Rattansi and the entire UoN fraternity convened a two-day Inaugural Chancellor’s Career Fair on August 13 – 14, 2018 at the University’s Main campus. The Chancellor’s Career Fair marked the beginning of a transitional journey for the students at the University of Nairobi. The main purpose of the event was to link the students to the Job market which was the theme of the day.  The training of students by industry partners focused on key areas of the job market as well as on entrepreneurship. It covered topics such as Branding for Employment, Cyber Security, Talent and Image Management, Technology Trends, Skills for Tomorrow, Tech Skills Gap, Creativity and Innovations and Business Models among others.  Over 100 students were linked to their dream jobs.

                                                           Chancellor’s Career fair 2018 

The University of Nairobi Mombasa Campus launched a mentorship program that is one of its kind. They roped in professionals from the industry who will play a leading role in mentoring students.  The launch was done on June 23, 2018, in Mombasa by the Vice Chancellor and DVC (Academic) Prof. Mbithi and Prof. Ogeng’o respectively where over 120 students were matched with over 80 industry professionals. The mentorship program by professionals came days after the Education Cabinet Secretary Ambassador Amina Mohammed launched the Career Services Office and urged institutions of higher learning to create linkages with industry and to help students improve on their personal brands. Well mentored students have a competitive advantage over their peers.

The annual Experiencing China Summer Program gave global exposure to two students from UoN on how China became a superpower and the role of higher education in modern China. The two students (Mary Ojwang Faculty of Arts and Mwenda Kioko of School of Engineering) were attached to Tsinghua University (best University in China) for 2 weeks “Experience China Program” where students were taken through China’s economics, politics, history, social and culture. The two students were in China for two weeks between July 14-28, 2018.

The Experiencing China 2019 Scholarship Program will be held from July 11 – 24, 2019.  This is an opportunity for UoN students to join Tsinghua University in Beijing this summer to gain a window into the world of China, explore the diversity of this vast nation, to decode China’s unique situation and aspirations, and develop links with China and the world. This summer’s experiential learning program at Tsinghua helps to sharpen student’s global vision and foster vital leadership skills for the future.

The course is made of 7 key tracks as listed below. Each track will be led by an academic tutor for in-depth exploration.

1. Architecture
2. Creative City
3. Environment
4. International Relations
5. Industry Frontiers
6. Urbanization
7. Gender