An organisation that convened more than 60 private-sector companies to help craft one of the first sets of curricula for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), designed by employers, has been honoured, signalling a shift in how Kenya prepares its workforce and its youth for the future of work.
That organisation is Swisscontact, recognised among Kenya’s top-performing institutions at the Diversity and Inclusion Awards & Recognition, held at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre.
It was named among the DIAR Top 100 Taifa Champions, honouring organisations delivering measurable, scalable impact with deeply embedded inclusive and sustainable practices.
The recognition comes at a critical moment for youth employment in Kenya. Nearly one million young people enter the labour market each year, with those aged 15-34 making up about 35%of the population.
Yet even as the country accelerates infrastructure development across sectors such as transport, housing and agriculture, youth unemployment remains persistently high, driven largely by a shortage of critical technical skills.
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The imbalance is stark. Across the wider economy, 55% of informal sector firms report difficulty finding skilled workers, underscoring a deep mismatch between training and industry needs.
Swisscontact’s response has been to fundamentally rethink how skills are developed. Since 2022, the organisation has worked with Don Bosco Boys Town Technical Institute, more than 60 private sector companies and the National Industrial Training Authority to pilot PropelA, a private-sector-led dual training TVET model that directly connects learning to employment.
“Under this approach, students spend 75% of their time in structured workplace experience and 25% in classroom instruction, gaining practical, industry-relevant skills and meeting a potential employer from day one,” noted Sharon Mosin-Urner, Country Director of Swisscontact Kenya.
According to her, Private sector companies are not passive recipients of graduates, but active partners co-designing curricula, offering workplace training opportunities and providing stipends during industry placements.
Apprentices in trades such as electrical installation and plumbing learn through a blend of hands-on workshop practice, classroom instruction and real-world industry exposure. The pilot has already demonstrated impact.
Employability rates among graduates have reached approximately 80 percent, with many of the rest moving into self-employment, clear evidence of a model that is working.
The lessons from the PropelA proof of concept have since informed the development of a newly launched private sector–led dual training curriculum, designed to be scaled nationally.
The programme, aptly named PropelA, from “propel,” meaning to drive forward with force and direction, is built to do just that: propel young people into dignified employment, propel industry to lead skills development, and propel training institutions towards market-responsive delivery.
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At its core, the model ensures that graduates are not just certified but job-ready, aligned with Kenya’s Competency-Based Education approach and the country’s Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda.
As the evening drew to a close, the recognition extended to leadership.
The Swisscontact, Kenya, Country Director was also honoured among the DIAR Top 30 Executives Taifa Laureates, an acknowledgement of the convening leadership behind a model that is not only addressing youth unemployment but reshaping the future of work in Kenya.
