I had a very inspiring trip to Nairobi last week and thought it was worth a quick report. My sponsor had contacts at two different organizations providing computer education along with business skills education and he wanted me to have a look. In Kenya the formal employment rate is about 45%. While this is much higher than Zambia’s formal employment rate (I have heard 10%), both countries still have similar business development needs. Both of the programs I visited worked on helping people build their entrepreneurial skills so that they could make their own jobs as opposed to finding a job. I also was welcomed with open arms by the directors of both programs, who met with me at length and gave me tours of some of their facilities. Here’s a little more about these programs:
The first program I visited, the Informal Sector Business Institute (ISBI) was geared towards people who were already working informally such as artisans and market hawkers. The main emphasis was to provide everyone with the business skills that they needed to operate their businesses legally and effectively. The basic business skills training includes accounting, marketing, professional ethics, business English, and management in a 20 hour course. The participants then could choose to take a computer skills course as a follow up if they felt that it would benefit their work. The courses were arranged to fit the schedule of a working adult, and were offered at two different locations. At this program (and the one below) participants did pay fees for the courses, although the costs were subsidized by outside donors.
The second program I visited, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), was targeted toward young adults who had finished secondary school but were not currently employed. They took a month long full-time course with u
nits of both business skills and computer skills. The course concluded with a business plan development project. Some of the students would then move right into implementing their business plans and were able to appear for drop-in advice for the next two months. Instead of investing in the infrastructure of computers and centers, DOT would send trained interns to existing community centers (with computers) in low-income communities and offer the training there. These two pictures come from a training center that was also used as an adult literacy program and pre-school. It was a rickety two-story building in the Mukuru neighborhood, a large poor community with 300
,000 adult residents. While observing a lesson in business plan development, I peeked my camera out the window for this long bleak view of tin roofs. In contrast, it was wonderful to hear the ideas coming from the participants for business plans that would benefit the community. My favorite was the team that wanted to become a fire brigade and garbage collectors in Mukuru.
The first program I visited, the Informal Sector Business Institute (ISBI) was geared towards people who were already working informally such as artisans and market hawkers. The main emphasis was to provide everyone with the business skills that they needed to operate their businesses legally and effectively. The basic business skills training includes accounting, marketing, professional ethics, business English, and management in a 20 hour course. The participants then could choose to take a computer skills course as a follow up if they felt that it would benefit their work. The courses were arranged to fit the schedule of a working adult, and were offered at two different locations. At this program (and the one below) participants did pay fees for the courses, although the costs were subsidized by outside donors.
The second program I visited, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), was targeted toward young adults who had finished secondary school but were not currently employed. They took a month long full-time course with u
nits of both business skills and computer skills. The course concluded with a business plan development project. Some of the students would then move right into implementing their business plans and were able to appear for drop-in advice for the next two months. Instead of investing in the infrastructure of computers and centers, DOT would send trained interns to existing community centers (with computers) in low-income communities and offer the training there. These two pictures come from a training center that was also used as an adult literacy program and pre-school. It was a rickety two-story building in the Mukuru neighborhood, a large poor community with 300
,000 adult residents. While observing a lesson in business plan development, I peeked my camera out the window for this long bleak view of tin roofs. In contrast, it was wonderful to hear the ideas coming from the participants for business plans that would benefit the community. My favorite was the team that wanted to become a fire brigade and garbage collectors in Mukuru.
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