Impact of Technology on Youths' Employement.

             With an increasing number of youths who are unemployed yet skilled, modern technology is offering leeway for this energy. With small and large companies receiving this hit and in return engaging mitigation plans to keep businesses at blest, most youths who were employed joined in to heat up the unemployment crisis in Kenya. With youths ranging from skilled to unskilled, both suffer the hit. The skilled who majorly comprise youths from polytechnics, colleges, and universities have been left with no option but to engage in money-generating sectors that they never had hands-on skills in. So where do they get these skills? Who offers these skills? Are they useful to leverage in a crisis?

                Well, all these questions remained unanswered clearly until the crisis fired up due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The answer is, that all these skills have in one way or another involved the internet. Most of these skills can now be accessed from the internet and modern technology. Most of the youths work in informal sectors which are largely unregulated subjecting them to low earnings and long hours, without any formal contracts. It is within this fallout that youths are unable to raise money to feed, dress or shelter themselves pulling them into drugs and crime making our prisons populated by this category of citizens in Kenya. Even though the informal sector serves as the largest job provider, the slow-growing economy is not only choking these sectors but also most have been forced to close down. This increases the ripple effect of unemployment in return.

                Even so, the government has established various projects one being Kazi Kwa Vijana under the flagship of Youth Enterprise Development funds (YEDF) which has boosted employment and entrepreneurship among people between 18 to 35 of age. Though this program is still active, today's Kenya unemployment rate stands at 65 percent where out of five unemployed Kenyans, three are youths.

It is for this reason the government through the Ministry of ICT launched the Ajira Digital Online Work program that seeks to train youths on online work leveraging the growing modern technology in Kenya. Through this program, hundreds of thousands so far have been able to attend the two days of training in the areas of transcription, content writing and translation, data entry, virtual assistance, and digital marketing. As part of the program, the trainees are guided to open accounts one being Upwork where they can access thousands of jobs online not only from the locals but also from international. One will not only apply these skills while performing the task for pay but also apply the digital skills to run their online businesses without hustle.

Through technology, the youths are able to carry out online shops that offer services and products. Most of these youths are now being hired as virtual assistants to help digitalize the formal and informal organizations as far entry clerks. With courts and other sectors taking services online, the demand for content writers and transcribers has tremendously increased. The youths with hands-on skills in digital marketing are being engaged as online marketers while those with designing and programming skills are contracted as graphics Designers, and web and software developers with no need to attend to a physical office making it easier and cheap to deliver their services, and products.

Without a doubt, most youths are feeding on technology with few challenges of internet connectivity, lack of good training centers for digital programs, lack of electricity, and inability to afford smartphones and laptops, especially the interior.

It is with great hope that amidst the political indifferences and resource allocation inequality, the Ajira Program will help leverage the unemployment crisis not only in urban areas but also in the rural as part of technology as a remedy for increasing unemployment in the youth sector.