Key Takeaways
📌 Governance & Accountability: Establishes a multi-stakeholder coordination mechanism to streamline labor migration policies, ethical recruitment practices, and compliance with international labor standards.
📌 Skills for the Global Labor Market: Enhances alignment between Kenya’s training programs and global job market needs, ensuring Kenyan workers are highly skilled and competitive.
📌 Cultural Integration & Resilience: Focuses on pre-departure training, psychosocial support, career guidance, and language skills to help Kenyan workers integrate into foreign cultures smoothly.
📌 Skills Recognition: Strengthens the recognition of Kenyan qualifications abroad through partnerships, skills verification programs, and digital records for easier credential portability.
📌 Bilateral Labor Agreements (BLAs): Kenya has signed agreements with several countries, including the UK, Saudi Arabia, and Germany, to facilitate safe labor migration.
📌 Protection of Migrant Workers: Ensures ethical recruitment, fair wages, decent working conditions, and access to legal and social protections for Kenyan workers abroad.
📌 Return & Reintegration Programs: Develops support structures for returning migrant workers, including entrepreneurship training, job placement, and reintegration programs.
📌 Use of Technology: Encourages digital solutions such as skills logbooks and skills passports to document qualifications and employment records for easier global recognition.
📌 Monitoring & Evaluation: Implements a framework to track labor migration trends, ensure policy effectiveness, and enhance Kenya’s position in the global workforce.
📌 Funding & Partnerships: Mobilizes resources from the government, private sector, and development partners to support skills development and labor migration initiatives.
Conclusion
The National Strategy on Skills Development for Labour Mobility (2024) seeks to transform Kenya into a leading source of skilled labor for global markets. By improving governance, aligning skills training with international demand, and ensuring worker protection, the strategy aims to create employment opportunities, boost economic growth, and enhance the global competitiveness of Kenyan workers.
