Scholarship program "Wings to Fly"

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Despite economic successes in the last decade, many people in Kenya continue to suffer from poverty and a lack of prospects. High (youth) unemployment and a simultaneous shortage of skilled workers pose enormous risks for the country's future development. Against this background, promoting youth employment and vocational training in Kenya is a key concern for the German federal government. For this reason, the BMZ initiated the Kenyan-German TVET Initiative (KGTI) at the beginning of 2017. The FC measure presented here is part of this initiative. As part of the FC, the nationwide Wings-to-Fly scholarship program for secondary school students, run by the Kenyan Equity Bank's Equity Group Foundation (EGF), has been co-financed in two phases since 2013 (BMZ No. 2010 65 838, 2013 65 386), thus creating the conditions for high-performing but particularly disadvantaged young people to lay the foundation for more demanding further vocational training with a high-quality secondary education. In Phase 3 presented here, the focus on vocational training as an alternative to university studies for graduates of the program is to be significantly increased. This opens up the opportunity for German development cooperation to significantly increase the effectiveness and visibility of strengthening vocational training measures in Kenya. The aim of the FC measure is to actively support needy young people with outstanding achievements to date by offering scholarships to attend a high-quality secondary school and (pre-)vocational courses, as well as mentoring, extracurricular events and advice on career choices, thus enabling them to receive a high-quality secondary school education and initial vocational training and strengthening their sense of social responsibility. This is intended to contribute to improving the employment of qualified workers in Kenya. The target group of the FC measure is disadvantaged but high-performing secondary school students and secondary school graduates who want to pursue secondary education or initial vocational training. The total cost of the FC module is EUR 4 million. An FC contribution (a grant of EUR 4 million) is planned to finance these costs. Given the immense need for skilled workers and the high demand for qualified educational opportunities in Kenya, this program proposal contains a reserve test component of EUR 10 million.