Vocational training in Kenya has often been looked down upon as a career for people who failed in school. Those trained often fail to secure employment due to low employability skills. For long, Rescue Dada Centre has offered vocational training to caregivers of street-connected girls under rehabilitation. The caregivers all lived in slum/ informal settlements. Some lacked basic literacy, while the elderly struggled to concentrate and endure long hours of training.
However, weeks into the training, some caregivers were consistently absent as they struggled to balance between the training and their casual work/ small businesses which they depended on for survival. Attending training also contributed to some cases of domestic violence meted by spouses who were against the women’s empowerment. All red flags thus indicated the possibility of the caregivers dropping out of the training.
The solution was to provide tailored and in-demand vocational training to the caregivers that would increase their commitment, income, enhance their employability and business skills and strengthen their support network.
Rescue Dada Centre conducted a market research to establish in-demand market skills, to enhance employability of the caregivers after the training. The following steps ensued:
Rescue Dada Centre (RDC) is a charitable children institution in Nairobi. The Centre was established in 1992, as an organisation doing street work to get to understand the circumstances of the girls living on the streets while operating a walk-in Centre, where street-connected children could come to share about their life experiences with social workers.