The Presidential DigiTalent Programme, which was launched on February of 2015, sent out its first batch of graduates to join the job market. The Digital Talent Programme was launched by President Uhuru Kenyatta in an aim to offer employment to more IT graduates and also improve the standards of ICT in the country, especially in the public sector.
Cohort 1, which was admitted in February of 2015, graduated yesterday, in an event that was graced by ICT cabinet secretary, Joe Mucheru and Education CS, Fred Matiang’i among other guests from both the public and private sector. The graduates had gone through an intensive 12 months on-the-job training, in both sectors (public and private).
The interns were placed in 14 governement ministries, where they worked on various projects for 10 months and then later on they were transferred to the private sector where they worked for 2 months. Out of the initial 100 interns admitted back in 2015, only 89 graduated after 11 dropped out for various resons, including getting job offers.
Interestingly, these interns are the brains behind most of the digital overhaul that we’ve been seeing across the government ministries and parastatals. They have worked on government flagship projects such as the eCitizen portal, Huduma Centre, NTSA, eHealth, eEducation, land registry among others. They were also involved in revamping most of the ministry’s websites such as the ministry of agriculture.
By the time of graduation, 45 out of the 89 graduates had already secured jobs in various minitries and also in the private sector. The remaining 44 were offered jobs in the Ministry of ICT by the CS, Joe Mucheru himself.
With a 100% placement, CS Fred Matiang’i (who was actually involved in the launch of the programme, back when he was ICT Minister), declared the programme a success and lauded the president for raising the intake for this year to 400 interns.
The programme is open to all IT-related courses graduates and we will definetely let you know when applications are open.
