Kenya has lined up a series of events for the next three months, focusing on promoting professional excellence and the development of vital skills among the youth.

On Monday next week, Kenya will kick off a two-day expo and conference in commemoration of World Skills Day, an annual event marked on July 15.

The Skill Up Africa Conference, to be held on July 15-16 at the KICC, Nairobi, provides stakeholders with an opportunity to restate their commitment to providing the youths with the right set of skills that will enable them to obtain gainful employment, decent work and requisite entrepreneurship knowledge.

The event themed ‘Youth skills for peace and development’ is expected to be attended by about 1,000 participants in person while 10,000 are expected to join online.

Some of the key activities include career fairs and guidance, youth and employer engagement as well as innovation exhibitions and awards.

Stakeholders in the skills development ecosystem will also be present to discuss peace and youth leadership, global value chain and emerging areas such as green skills and digital skills.

After the conference, Kenya will immediately begin preparing for the second edition of the World Skills Kenya national competition to be held next month on August 19-23 in Nairobi.

The competition comes ahead of the World Skills Africa competition to be held in Zambia In March next year.

The competition will entail 24 skill areas involving over 150 youths under the age of 25 and brings together 48 skills experts and an equal number of judges.

“In the national competitions, individual trainees from colleges and universities will showcase their skills in various fields,” TVET Authority CEO Kipkirui Langat said.

Langat noted that top performers in the national competition will represent Kenya at the World Skills Africa.

A month later, following the August national competition, Kenya will participate in the World Skills global competition to be held in Lyon, France on September 10-15.

The country will be represented by nine competitors who won in various categories in the first national competition held last year in August.

During the national event, contestants compete for top prizes in 18 skills.

“The WorldSkills global competition is an equivalent of athletics’ Olympics where talented sportsmen and women contest for top honours. The movement, which is over 70 years old, started as ‘Skills Olympics’, later changed to WorldSkills competitions to distinguish it from Olympic games,” Langat stated.

“Incidentally the two events will be taking place in France this coming summer and will be opened by the French President Emmanuel Macron.”

Kenya became the 84th member of the World Skills International (WSI) in October 2020, joining a movement that aims to raise the profile and recognition of skilled professionals worldwide.

By joining the global movement provides us with an opportunity to integrate international occupational standards into our training systems hence promoting skills mobility among Kenyans.

WSI hosts biennial competitions allowing young professionals to showcase their skills and talents. As part of this contest, World Skills Kenya organises national skills competitions where young Kenyans demonstrate their abilities in various trades and skills.

Kenyans participated in the first World Skills Africa held in Namibia in 2022, with the team giving a good account for itself winning in a number of entries.