TALKING POINT opposed to attending university to attain degrees . Recent statistics indicate that a reasonable proportion of those qualified to join university decided to join the TVETs in order to gain technical skills that seem to have higher demand in the job market compared to white collar skills . This is two prong , one is that they want a course that takes a short time to be ready for the job market , and secondly there are parents who just want to educate their children beyond basic and secondary school levels . The other reason seems to be the acceptance of entrepreneurship as an alternative to employment which means that one may seek to gain specific skills to start a business using the same .
Kenya Has About 1.2 Million Gig Workers Which Calls for Competence Beyond IT Literacy
A recent study on Ajira , the Government of Kenya digital jobs initiative indicated that Kenya had about 1.2 million gig workers as at mid-2021 . I heard the Cabinet Administrative Secretary in the ministry of ICT and Youth Affairs explain how some Kenyan youth have been doing some interesting jobs like watch CCTVs of top retail outlets in the US at the comfort of their homes in rural Kenya , while others transcribe court proceedings for Kenya ’ s judiciary .
During the launch of Konza Metropolis Development Authority ’ s second strategic plan 2021-2025 the Governor of Kiambu - James Nyoro was given a chance to address the attendants by the ICT Cabinet Secretary . He said that before he got into politics , he was involved in a donor funded initiative that was aimed at providing digital jobs for the youth from the urban slums . They planned to first train the youth on computer literacy before they could expose them to digital work .
To their surprise , the youth were already highly computer literate , the only problem was that it was difficult to get them to sit down and do the job because of jumpiness . They had to train them on staying in one location for several hours conducting repetitive tasks that required time to complete . This means that the basic skills required by the market are readily available from the University of Hard Knocks what may be lacking
“ There ’ s an analogy of simplification that says technologies and methods such as contraceptives , warranty , mobile number portability , space explorations , vaccines and Internet of Things should be explained in simple terms that your grandmother can understand . This is a communication lesson that CBC seems to address very well . ”
is the soft skills required in the case of the slum youth concentration and self-discipline skills .
BBC : Kenyan Parents are Terrified Of Making Scare Crows
A story on BBC website stated that Kenyan parents are scared by the scare crows they have been making for their children under the new CBC . The report also quoted Kenyans arguing that it ’ s more expensive than the previous 8-4- 4 system because of printing and other materials required for the assignments . They argued that the parents do the work while their children supervise them .
Conspiracy theorists say that the government saw the quality of leaders elected in some cities and neighboring counties and decided to introduce CBC to forcefully reeducate citizens on basics and common sense which seemed to have been in short supply based on the quality of some of the elected leaders .
The Law Society of Kenya ’ s Chairman had also filed a case in court against the introduction of the curriculum . Other critics have also quoted Professor Terry Hyland a British Educationist who in 1998 warned of Western Governments exporting academic failures to Sub-
Saharan Africa like the CBC which he compared to failed soap operas because of having many anomalies in assessment of leaners .
Market Research Lessons From Dog Food New Product Development
Some blogger gave an example of a market research conducted for a dog food company where the new product with new formulation had been rated as very delicious according to responses from dog owners . After launch the dog owners bought the product but dogs boycotted it , a post mortem after the product failure indicated that the food eaters should have been surveyed in the test marketing exercise and not the dog owners . This example was used to express the valid fears that CBC may be testing the competence of the parents and not the learners . In Market Research new product concepts should be tested with real users of the category and not their representatives .
If You Have To Do Something New You Have to Stop Doing Something Old
The CBC approach has persuaded me to propose that the assessment center approach should be adopted by employers and mainstreamed as opposed to the traditional interview methods . In the case of Assessment Center potential candidates are given specific tasks to perform . They are then assessed according to their ability to solve a problem related to the job they applied for .
Marketers also need to ride on the wave , instil competence among consumers , target gig workers while cultivating CBC values in the brands in the spirit of the saying , “ If you have to do something new you have to stop doing something old ”. ■
Boniface Ngahu is a seasoned marketing research expert and runs the Talking Point column in Marketing Africa magazine . He is the Marketing Director of SBO Research . Talk with him via email at :
BNgahu @ sboresearch . co . ke or follow him on Twitter
@ bngahu
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