World Youth Skills Day 2026: Skills Create Jobs, Jobs Create Decent Livelihoods—But Only If We Get Skills Development Right

Every year, World Youth Skills Day reminds us of a simple but powerful truth: the future of any nation depends not only on educating young people, but on equipping them with practical skills that lead to meaningful employment, entrepreneurship, and dignified livelihoods.

This year's message—"Skills Create Jobs, Jobs Create Decent Livelihoods"—is particularly relevant in Kenya, where thousands of young people continue to navigate unemployment despite possessing immense potential. Skills development is no longer just a social intervention; it is an economic necessity.

Against this backdrop, one of the Government of Kenya's most ambitious youth empowerment initiatives deserves recognition: the National Youth Opportunities Towards Advancement (NYOTA) Programme, particularly its On-the-Job Experience (OJE) component, supported by the World Bank.

The programme is innovative in design. It attempts to bridge the long-standing gap between classroom learning and workplace experience by combining life skills, employability training, and structured workplace mentorship. If implemented effectively, it has the potential to become one of Kenya's most impactful youth employment programmes.

The question, however, is not whether the idea is good.

The question is whether implementation will allow the idea to achieve its intended impact.

A Programme Built on Strong Foundations

The OJE model begins with an extensive Social and Emotional Skills (SES) training programme involving over 150,000 young Kenyans across the country.

Participants spend several weeks learning topics such as:

• workplace communication;

• professionalism;

• teamwork;

• resilience;

• financial literacy;

• goal setting;

• work ethics; and

• personal responsibility.

These are foundational competencies that many employers consistently identify as lacking among first-time job seekers.

Following this training, participants are expected to spend approximately five months attached to Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), where experienced mentors provide practical workplace exposure while government incentives help reduce the financial burden on both trainees and host enterprises.

On paper, this is exactly the kind of ecosystem Kenya has needed for years.

The Reality on the Ground

Having attended portions of the programme as an interested community stakeholder and as someone involved in youth development initiatives, I observed both encouraging aspects and areas that deserve honest reflection.

One recurring observation during the Social and Emotional Skills training was participant engagement.

For many young people, attendance appeared to be driven more by the daily lunch provided and the transport reimbursement than by the learning itself. This should not automatically be interpreted as a lack of interest among the youth. Rather, it raises an important question:

Was the training methodology sufficiently connected to the realities, aspirations, and expectations of its audience?

When participants perceive training as overly generic or detached from their immediate career goals, maintaining engagement becomes increasingly difficult.

The challenge may therefore lie less with the learners and more with how content is contextualized and delivered.

When Good Systems Begin to Stall

The more concerning issues emerged after the classroom phase.

Many trainees were expected to transition into practical placements with host SMEs.

Unfortunately, implementation appears to have become inconsistent in some areas.

In our own case, our organization had initially experienced logistical challenges that temporarily affected our readiness to host trainees. Rather than withdrawing, we invested significant time and resources to establish an alternative site specifically to ensure that young people would not miss the opportunity for mentorship.

Despite those efforts, more than nine weeks into the mentorship phase, no trainees had been deployed to the site.

This experience naturally raises questions about placement coordination and communication.

If organizations that actively prepare to receive trainees remain unutilized, valuable learning opportunities risk being lost.

SMEs Need Partnership, Not Suspicion

Successful workplace learning depends heavily on the willingness of businesses to open their doors to inexperienced young people.

That willingness should be protected.

Unfortunately, some experiences shared by SME owners suggest room for improving engagement between programme administrators and host enterprises.

One entrepreneur recounted receiving an unexpected verification visit that she felt was conducted in a confrontational rather than supportive manner. She described feeling overwhelmed after officials inspected the premises, asked several questions, and departed without offering clear feedback or explaining the next steps.

Whether or not procedural concerns existed, such experiences illustrate the importance of respectful communication.

Most SMEs participating in programmes like OJE are not large corporations with dedicated compliance departments. Many are family-run businesses balancing customers, production, childcare, and countless daily responsibilities.

Verification should strengthen partnerships—not discourage them.

The Cost of Poor Coordination

Several trainees reportedly remain without placements despite successfully completing the preparatory training.

Equally, some enterprises that were willing to mentor young people have waited for weeks without receiving any trainees.

When communication becomes inconsistent, uncertainty affects everyone.

Businesses struggle to plan operations.

Mentors cannot organize structured training schedules.

Young people lose confidence.

Public trust begins to erode.

Even seemingly small logistical decisions matter.

For example, if an enterprise is approved to host three trainees over a 24-week mentorship period, deploying all three simultaneously often creates a more effective learning environment than assigning trainees at widely separated intervals. Cohort-based learning encourages teamwork, simplifies supervision, and allows businesses to plan production and mentorship more efficiently.

Operational details like these significantly influence programme outcomes.

Constructive Criticism Strengthens Public Programmes

None of these observations diminish the value of the NYOTA Programme.

On the contrary, they demonstrate why continuous evaluation is essential.

Large public programmes inevitably encounter implementation challenges.

What distinguishes successful programmes is not the absence of problems but the willingness to identify them early, listen to stakeholders, and improve.

Constructive criticism should therefore be viewed as a contribution to programme success rather than opposition.

Many stakeholders—including trainees, SMEs, trainers, and community organizations—share the same objective: ensuring that Kenyan youth receive meaningful opportunities that translate into sustainable employment.

Beyond Statistics

Development programmes are often measured by impressive numbers:

• number of youth trained;

• number of SMEs registered;

• number of counties covered;

• number of mentorship placements completed.

These indicators are important.

Yet the more meaningful questions are qualitative.

Did participants actually acquire workplace competence?

Did SMEs become stronger businesses after participating?

Did trainees secure employment or create enterprises?

Did the programme improve livelihoods?

Ultimately, these outcomes define success far more than attendance registers.

A Chance to Build Something Transformational

Kenya has no shortage of talented young people.

It has no shortage of innovative entrepreneurs willing to mentor them.

What is often missing is an implementation ecosystem that consistently connects the two.

The NYOTA On-the-Job Experience Programme has the ingredients to become a transformative national model for youth employment.

Its design reflects global best practice by integrating soft skills, workplace exposure, mentorship, and incentives into one coordinated intervention.

However, realization of that vision depends on transparent communication, responsive administration, respectful engagement with SMEs, timely placements, and continuous monitoring focused on outcomes rather than processes alone.

Final Thoughts

As we commemorate World Youth Skills Day, we should celebrate programmes that invest in young people's potential while remaining honest about the improvements needed to maximize their impact.

Skills alone do not create livelihoods.

Skills must be connected to opportunity.

Opportunity must be supported by systems that are efficient, fair, and accountable.

When those elements work together, young people thrive, businesses grow, and communities prosper.

That is the true promise behind the message:

Skills Create Jobs. Jobs Create Decent Livelihoods.

The challenge before all stakeholders is ensuring that this message becomes more than a slogan—it becomes the lived experience of every young Kenyan seeking an opportunity to build a better future.