AudiencScapes

Disadvantaged youth use ICT training to find jobs and start businesses.

By Dinfin Mulupi
Nairobi, Kenya -- For low-income youth living in Nairobi’s massive informal settlements, computer skills may be a stepping stone to a better life. An innovative nonprofit program seeks to give Nairobi youth the tools both to find a job and express themselves in the digital era. Known as “Nairobits,” the program equips students between 15 and 24 with training in Web design and entrepreneurship.

According to Anne Ikiara, the general manager of the Nairobits Digital Design School , training in information and communication technology skills offers youth an alternative to a life of poverty, crime and drug abuse. Nairobi’s informal settlements are rife with unemployed young adults who turn to crime and drugs.

“Our focus area is the youth from the informal settlement of Nairobi which constitutes 60 percent of the total population, estimated at 7 million. Our goal is to assist 70 percent of the urban informal settlement youths [to gain] access to vocational and life skills. Hence: get employment,” says Ikiara.

One Nairobits student, Samson Ongondo from Mathare, told AudienceScapes he never expected to pursue higher education because his family could not afford college tuition.


“I have been given an opportunity to study and get a job and future. I will not have to get into crime to earn a living or engage in drugs due to idleness, since after training I know I will get a job and live a good life,” he says.

The cost of higher education was also a barrier for Victor Gachanga, a 2009 graduate. After graduating from Nairobits, he joined the internet firm Intrepid Kenya (www.intrepidkenya.com)as an intern and has since been employed as a Web designer and developer.

From Training for the Job to Landing the Job
In its six training centers, the Nairobits Digital Design School offers youth free training in ICT skills and helps them with job placement in the local market. Courses include a basic introduction to computers, specialized Web design and development skills, and education about health issues affecting students, like HIV/AIDS. To reach more students, the school partners with community-based organizations (CBOs) throughout Nairobi. Centers are located in the expansive Kibera settlement, Mathare, East Leigh, Marurui, Kayole, and Kariobangi North.

“Currently, we are in partnership with 34 CBOs scattered across all the slums in Nairobi. To retain the relevance of our curriculum in the versatile ICT sector, we work with commercial companies in the ICT industry,” Ikiara says.

Nairobits solicits input from the companies to update its curriculum. Through such consultation, Nairobits can assure it is adapting its training programs to the ever-changing needs of the ICT market.

The curriculum is progressive, Ikiara explains, “starting from introduction to computers up to specialization in ICT Web design and development. Media lab is the highest and the final level of training, after which the graduates are linked to internship and employment opportunities in ICT-related companies.”

After completing the one-year training course, Nairobits places students in internships with internet and Web design companies. Almost all of these internships lead to employment. More than 30 Nairobi companies participate in the internship program, including Three Mice Interactive Media, MamaMikes and Wananchi Online.

Life Skills: Entrepreneurship and HIV Awareness
To motivate students to take advantage of the opportunities that exist in the market, Nairobits also offers training in entrepreneurship. This includes generating business ideas, writing a business plan, conducting market research, drawing up a budget and action plan, sourcing, and financial management.
“Our aim is to equip the youths on how to be well rounded, such that if they do not get employment they can use the ICT skills taught to start a business,” Ikiara says.

In addition to teaching straightforward ICT skills, Nairobits gives students vital health information. Nairobits has partnered with the World Population Foundation to counter the widespread prevalence of HIV and other reproductive health diseases among youth in Kenya. Nairobits uses an interactive digital program called the World Starts With Me to educate the youth about reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention.

Spreading a Good Idea
Since it began 10 years ago, Nairobits has trained 6,000 young people from Kenya’s populous informal settlements. More than 3,000 graduates have since been formally employed.

The school was started by three Dutch professionals: Ineke Aquarius, Emer Beamer and Hester Ezra (now of the Butterfly Works Foundation). They wanted to provide underprivileged youth in Africa with the means to create African content for the Web and with opportunities to enter the labor market.

Nairobits has been recognized internationally with multiple awards from the World Bank to the United Nations. It relies on donations from the International Youth Foundation, Samsung (through its Real Dreams Project), Microsoft, Turing Foundation, the European Union, Kindernothilfe, Terre Des Hommes Netherlands, and the Edukans Foundation.

The success Nairobits has had in Kenya is leading to requests for expansion or assistance in the creation of similar efforts. Nairobits has assisted with the replication of the training program in Uganda and in Tanzania. It has also helped open an Ethiopian branch of the school, called Addisbits, and another branch, Zanzibits, in Zanzibar.

More info:
www.nairobits.com

Dinfin Mulupi is a business journalist based in Nairobi, Kenya. She is currently the East Africa correspondent for an online business paper based in Cape Town in South Africa.
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