More than 800 National Youth Service (NYS) graduates have been connected to job opportunities in the past 18 months, courtesy of Centum Investment Plc’s facility management arm, Tribus-TSG.
The job placement initiative by Centum is in line with a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that Centum signed with NYS in 2019.
Under the deal, Tribus-TSG hires a pre-agreed number of NYS graduates annually, while the NYS facilitates recruitment and selection of youths for employment and helps in processing of police clearance certificates for the selected teams.
Tribus-TSG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Centum Investment, directly employed 215 of the youths, while 646 were connected to external employment opportunities, in a bid by Centum to soften the economic blow caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tribus-TSG Managing Director, James Nicholl, said that the Company is happy that, despite the Covid-19 disruption to the global economy, the program has been a resounding success in as far as creating employment for the youths is concerned, as well as providing a valuable cushion against the pandemic for the qualifying youths.
Nicholl said that the youths are usually deployed to its diverse clientele base in sectors including NGOs, real estate, education, manufacturing, media and hospitality.
“The youths hired directly by Tribus-TSG were deployed in diverse fields, including security, cleaning, manufacturing, drivers, sales and marketing, control room analysts among others,” he explained.
Centum Chief Executive, Dr James Mworia, on his part noted that the opportunities created for the NYS graduates aid in achieving the country’s ‘Big Four’ national economic agenda.
“Tribus-TSG hires the NYS graduates in broad job categories, including safety and security, soft services and hard services. Soft services include hygiene technicians and consumable operators while hard services include electrical and water service workers,” he said.
Mworia further noted that other graduates are posted in Tribus-TSG’s ICT department, catering, hospitality, entertainment and events as well as construction and agriculture.
In addition to creating job opportunities for NYS youths, Tribus also connected and impacted over 504,196 Kenyans through its Ajiry online jobs platform and its Zero Contact Distribution Program that was used to distribute foodstuffs to Covid-19 affected families.
Ajiry was established by the Centum subsidiary to bridge the country’s huge unemployment gap. The Web Application is designed to provide a platform for workers and employers to connect and network effortlessly, in an environment free from third-party interference.
Training centers were opened in twelve counties to pilot the Ajiry platform, including Nairobi, Kisumu, Mombasa, Kilifi, Laikipia, Meru, Nyeri, Machakos, Nakuru, Bungoma, Kiambu and Wajir.
Trainers were sent to these counties to teach youths on the use of the platform.
“Ajiry was started as a mission to transform this country by connecting young people with job opportunities and I’m happy to note that we have far exceeded our target in our first full year despite the pandemic,” said Dr Mworia.
By Alice Gworo
