Johanssen O.The Reality Youth Face
For years, youth unemployment has been linked to corruption, reinforcing the belief that after graduation, one has to “tarmac” a lot, or otherwise look for a job for long periods, and that if their stars align, they will get it without “having connections”. This is incomplete and misleading.
Many educated youth remain unemployed, turning to informal hustles that are now replacing structured opportunities. Thousands of young people graduate every year with skills, ideas, and ambition. Yet many still struggle to turn those abilities into sustainable livelihoods. A sad story of talents that never became income and skills that remain unused. There is a gap between talent and opportunity, and that is exactly what led to the creation of the Youth Entrepreneurship Program (YEP).
The Core Problem: Talent Without Opportunity
Limited Job Opportunities
A later policy brief by the National Council of Population and Development in 2017 indicated that over 80% of Kenya’s population is aged 35 years and below, with youth aged 15-34 making up about 35% of the total population. Each year, thousands of these young people graduate from schools, universities, and vocational institutions with the hope of joining the workforce, yet the labour market is not expanding quickly enough to absorb them.
There are not enough formal jobs. Despite the increasing number of youths, employment opportunities remain limited. Many young people either remain unemployed or are forced into low-income and low-productivity jobs, often within the informal sector. They lack sufficient opportunities to apply their skills in meaningful ways.
Skills That Remain Informal
We often talk about youths from the marginalized communities. The moment you hear that, what comes to mind is poverty, low literacy levels, and any other negative thing you could think about in relation to that. But when you actually visit there, you’ll see detailed graffiti (unauthorised writings), drawings, or paintings (creative arts), young people playing football at near-professional level (sports), a small cyber cafe buzzing with activities (digital services and technology), and trade going on.
However, these skills rarely translate into sustainable income because they often lack the structure, mentorship, and resources required to turn them into viable enterprises. As a result, many youth operate in small, informal activities that generate limited income and offer limited opportunity for growth. Without access to the right systems, promising talents often remain side hustles instead of scalable businesses.
Fragmented Support
Yes, many programs focus on skills training, mentorship, funding, or innovation. The only downside is that these initiatives often operate in isolation. Young people may gain training but lack access to markets. Others may have ideas but struggle to find mentorship or networks to help them grow.
This fragmented ecosystem/support system makes it difficult for young people to move from ideas to sustainable enterprises. Without coordinated support that connects skills, mentorship, and market opportunities, many promising ideas never develop into viable ventures.
Why Entrepreneurship?
Have you ever thought of being your own boss? That is what entrepreneurship enables you to become. You spot a challenge and think of ideas for solving that challenge. That is how a startup usually starts and later becomes a whole company or scalable venture. This enables you to build your own economic pathway, as you empower and employ people along the way. Entrepreneurship is one way we can create sustainable livelihoods. One empowered youth translates to an empowered generation.
In a time where technology is rapidly expanding, young people are becoming more digitally connected, getting updates on current issues by the click of a button. It is now easier to see where a problem or crisis is due to the load of research being put across the digital platforms. This enables the youth to adapt to the current issues and learn better on how to solve the problems.
Why JAY4T chose this path
Having posted surveys (youth survey), attending feedback conferences and having direct talks with youths in our Xchange Bazaars, we decided to take an actionable step. We discovered that the problem amongst unemployed youth isn’t a lack of opportunity; rather, it’s a lack of exposure to opportunities. Most of the feedback we got from the youth is that they are truly ambitious, although the gap comes in when they do not know how to take the next step.
Skills mismatch is a persistent problem, and so through the creation of the Youth Entrepreneurship program, JAY4T aims to equip young people with market-relevant skills, mentor them and nurture their talents, and engage in aspects such as peer learning, where they will learn to collaborate.
JAY4T chose the entrepreneurship path, as this will enable the young people to gain knowledge and practical skills on how to start, run, and manage their own economic social enterprises as they work on existing social enterprises of JAY4T, that is, LigiOpen, Kaakazini, and Sote Tule.
What makes YEP different?
We realized that supporting youth required more than training. It required networks, collaboration, market access, and enterprise support. That realization shaped YEP.
This is why YEP is different:
1. Co-creation
Youth are not passive beneficiaries – they are co-creators. YEP allows the youth a chance to build social enterprises together, JAY4T seeing them through the ideation stage to completion.
2. Asset-based community development (ABCD)
The program will mainly focus on the already existing skills, knowledge, and talents of the young people, an asset-based community development approach. YEP will focus on building enterprises that solve community challenges.
3. Collaboration instead of competition
The program allows young people to exchange skills and knowledge and build ventures together.
4. Practical learning
It’s not always “class” or workshops. The program will mainly focus on active and practical learning. That is one of the main reasons why the mode of learning is in-person.
What the program aims to achieve
1. Support ecosystems
Young people will gain the tools, networks, and support needed to build sustainable enterprises.
2. Economic empowerment
The program aims to economically empower youth through enterprise creation and employment opportunities within JAY4T’s three social enterprises.
3. Economic empowerment
The program aims to economically empower youth through enterprise creation and employment opportunities within JAY4T’s three social enterprises.
4. Financial literacy
Through YEP, youth will gain financial literacy skills, enabling them to manage their finances more effectively.
5. Innovation ecosystems
YEP aims to build stronger youth innovation ecosystems.
The long-term vision is a generation of youth who are not waiting for opportunities but actively creating them.
Every year, thousands of young people are told to ‘be patient’ and ‘keep applying.’ Patience does not create jobs. That is why we are taking this step.
Let us join hands to build a more equitable future for the youth, as one empowered youth translates to an empowered generation.