Entrepreneurship tends to be seen to be for school dropouts,retirees,jobless and the restless.This is because since childhood our minds have been programmed to be tailor made for the formal employment that offers the solace of a non-existent safety.This is in stark contrast to the financial pressure found by employees in formal employment of balancing a lifestyle driven expenses against an inflation driven income. This of course leads to the "mwezi kona" and mid month salary advance requests and more debt.
This focus on formal employment as the only way to earn a living has been attributed to Kenya's education system. It is rigid,idealistic and ignorant of learners' talents outside academia.The result is a vicious cycle of misalignment between formal job openings against job applicants.A meeting held in May 2015 by StoryMoja publishers brought together curriculum developers,psychologists,employers,teachers and parents.Here a career encyclopedia was launched to help deal with problem of youth in NEET or not in education,employment and training.The encyclopedia contains 120 careers,interviews with people in careers of interest and access to mentor ship.
There is a group that aims to inculcate the importance of blue collar jobs;the Daughters of Nile or just DON.It comprises of nineteen young women from various professional fields who reach out to young people in secondary schools to encourage them to seek careers in plumbing,hairdressing and to run them as proper business ventures.
This is remarkable because in Kenya 4 out of 10 people are unemployed and the figure rises in the youth to 7 out of 10 unemployment levels.Clearly the road map of careers needs to be redrawn at an ealier age in the school system in hand with a rigorous mindshift in parents,society and employers.
Inspired by:
Daughters of Nile "Kenya's jobless youth cry for a listening ear"
http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/DN2/-Kenya-s-jobless-youth-cry-for-a-listening-ear/-/957860/2828094/-/format/xhtml/-/vet5p0/-/index.html
Patrick Wameyo "You retire poor because of your socialisation"
http://www.nation.co.ke/lifestyle/money/retrenchment-retirement-career-transition/-/435440/2394722/-/rabvw0z/-/index.html
Storymoja Career Encyclopedia
http://storymojaafrica.co.ke/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/About-Careerpedia.pdf
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