Improving Young Women’s Work Readiness and Employability through Apprenticeship, Internship and Mentorship

Kenyan employers have raised concerns on work relevance of the skills possessed by young men and women joining the job market (Republic of Kenya, 2019) Female participation in the Kenyan job market is 29.5 per cent compared to males at 36 per cent (Owino et al., 2016).The gender disparity is more apparent in STEM related fields. Apprenticeship, Internship and Mentorship (AIM) programs have been introduced in Kenya to bridge the gap of non-readiness and unpreparedness for the labour market. This study will evaluate impacts of Public Service Internship Program (PSIP), Kenya Youth Employment Opportunities Project (KYEOP), STEM Kenya Mentorship programme and Public Service Internship Policy (2016) on women’s work readiness in Kenya. The main objective is to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes in enhancing young women’s work readiness and employability.

It is recognised that policy analysis and programme impact analysis utilise a variety of methodological approaches. In this study, a non-experimental approach will be used. For data collection, the study will utilise a combination of survey and non-survey techniques.

Both descriptive and inferential statistics will be generated to assess the needed evidence, thus both primary and secondary data will be sourced. The study will employ both qualitative and quantitative approaches where the cohort study’s methodology will be employed. Regression methods suitable for longitudinal data will then be employed to estimate program effects, controlling for confounding factors. The study targets a population of 10,000 young women and men who have completed college education. Using a scientific formula, a sample size of 270 will be selected.

The expected outcome is improved exposure of 20% of young women to apprenticeship, internship or mentorship programmes to enhance their work readiness and employability by 2025. The collaborators in this study are Ministries of Education, Public Service and Gender, and Information Communication Technology and Youth Affairs.