The Sports Career Fair and Symposium officially Kicked-off today in Nairobi at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), aiming to bring together all sports stakeholders to build connections and showcase the diverse career opportunities in Sports.
Convened by the Kenya Academy of Sports (KAS), the three-day inaugural event starting August 6th to August 8th under the theme ‘Exploring Career Opportunities in Sports’ offers youth real pathways, while urging parents and federations, to champion talent and empower dreams.
The Symposium is also key in highlighting the opportunities available in the sports ecosystem. Currently, sports is emerging as one of the main frontiers for job creation, wealth generation and community transformation and empowerment in Kenya.
The Cabinet Secretary (CS), for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy & Sports, Mr. Salim Mvurya, described the event as the first of its kind, noting will serve to enlighten the youth on how to invest in and actively participate in one of Kenya’s fastest-growing frontiers for job creation, wealth generation, and community transformation.
The CS said that the Forum seeks to expose young sports professionals, federations, academic institutions, coaches, sports journalists, stadia managers, and other key actors within the sports ecosystem, to the vast opportunities that exist for skills development, professional growth, and livelihood empowerment.
In his speech read on his behalf by the Principal Secretary (PS), State Department for Sports, Mr. Elijah Mwangi, during a media engagement in Nairobi, the CS said the Fair is a deliberate and strategic Government initiative and it aligns with the government Bottom-Up Transformative Agenda (BETA), aimed at creating progressive pathways for young people in the sports sector.
The CS said that the goal of the fair is to show young people the vast opportunities within the sporting industry, including life-changing careers in coaching, sports, medicine, physiotherapy, biomechanics, performance tracking and analytics, sports journalism, law, marketing, content creation, and many more.
“Kenya, a globally renowned sporting powerhouse, famed for its exceptional athletes and elite sporting culture and cultural diversity, cannot afford to remain on the sidelines of this transformation,” he said.
He noted that it is also critical in bringing together stakeholders including federations, academic institutions, private sector, partners, global industry players among others.
“These are essential building blocks in establishing strategic partnerships, enhancing co-operative networks, sharing of knowledge and identification of potential areas for investment and growth,” he said, while appealing to each stakeholder whose support is essential to the realization of the dream.
He said the government is strengthening the talent development pipeline, by integrating sports with education and entrepreneurship, ensuring that talent is identified early, nurtured properly and supported holistically
“To every parent, support your child’s dream, even if those dreams involve wearing a jersey or carrying a whistle. To every educator, integrate sports into career guidance and curriculum planning. And to every sports federation, identify and present real opportunities to connect with the next generation,” said CS Mvurya
“I call upon all youth across the country, regardless of background, to take part in this life-transforming event and discover the immense potential that lies within the sports industry,” he said.
He commended KAS for the ambitious and very necessary undertaking, noting “Let us move forward, government, private, academia, federations, and communities, and create an all-encompassing ecosystem, where sports inspire, innovate, and transform people,”
“This is a journey we have embarked on, one that is paired by our collective passion and vision to usher in a new turn for Kenya’s sporting landscape, particularly for our young people,” he said.
KAS CEO Dr. Doreen Odhiambo, emphasized the need to use sport opportunity as a springboard for careers and professions and that the Sports and Career Fair and Symposium highlight KAS’s commitment to creating platforms that position sports as a viable career path for youth.
She said that from participating directly as sportsmen and women, the sector has a multitude of opportunities in areas among them coaching, sports law, professionals’ management, sports nutrition, media rights, stadium management, pitch and crowd security, sound and light engineering.
“We keep forging strong beneficial networks with all stakeholders to accelerate the realization of the full potential of our sports ecosystem,” she said, adding that the symposium brings together top actors in the sector, including sport professionals, federations, academic institutions & global industry players.
KAS Chairperson of Council, Mr. Thuo Chege, lauded the Academy’s transformative approach to expanding the sports ecosystem, targeting to unlock the massive potential in the sporting sector.
He said through the Career Fair, we aim to usher in a new era from medals to market, passion to platform—by showcasing the vast opportunism in the sports sector in a move to reimagine sports as a career, a business, a craft, and most importantly, a pathway to empowerment of our communities, counties and the country as a whole.
“These are potential jobs for our young people whose contribution and creativity in driving the sporting ecosystem is massive,” he said.
By Anita Omwenga
