New Government Deal To Secure Jobs For Fresh Graduates.
Fresh graduates will be able to secure jobs thanks to an agreement reached between the National Government and employers, most of whom are business owners.
Businesses that hire more than ten recent graduates will benefit from tax breaks equal to half of the graduates’ salaries under the new agreement.
The new agreement, which aims to reduce unemployment during the current fiscal year, goes into effect on Saturday, January 1. Businesses that qualify for this incentive must hire graduates for a period of six months to a year.
The program’s main goal is to boost skill development and increase the country’s youth employment rate.
The agreement is set to go into effect following changes made by the National Treasury, led by Cabinet Secretary Ukur Yatani, to the Finance Act 2021, which will allow graduates from technical and vocational institutions to gain experience in the same way that graduates from universities do.
“Any employer who engages at least 10 university or technical and vocational education and training graduates as apprentices for a period of six to 12 months during any year of income shall be eligible for a tax rebate in the year subsequent to the year of such engagement,” reads part of the changes.
Prior to Treasury issuing this new directive, only firms employing at least 10 university graduates were eligible for tax breaks, a change that took effect in 2016.
The most recent changes take place against the backdrop of a growing emphasis on technical and vocational institutions. Due to a lack of specialized market skills and experience to perform tasks, recent graduates from institutions of higher learning face limited job opportunities.
According to the Economic Survey 2021, the country’s economy lost over 187,300 formal jobs in the financial year ended June 2020, the first time since 2001 when 18,300 salaried workers were laid off.
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The figures highlighted the economic difficulties caused by shutdowns and restrictions that were lifted late in 2021 as a result of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive.
Despite new enrollment records at educational institutions, the unemployment rate increased. According to the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), enrollment at the institutions increased by 130.4 per cent to 451,205 students in 2020, up from 195,857 in 2016.
New Government Deal To Secure Jobs For Fresh Graduates
