Jubilee Insurance, USIU Africa unveil mentorship program for students

NAIROBI, Kenya Feb 3 – Jubilee Insurance has partnered with the United States International University-Africa to launch a regional mentorship program that will equip students with skills to be better prepared for employment.

The program targets USIU-Africa students in both junior and senior years and is expected to impact 100 students from various disciplines this year with a targeted number of 300 students over the next three years.

It will be implemented by the USIU-Africa Placement and Career Services team who will train fifty Jubilee Insurance staff members from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania on mentoring skills to support their engagement as mentors to USIU-Africa students.

The trained staff will be engaged into a formal and structured program that will run for one year.

While commenting about the partnership launch, Jubilee Insurance Group CEO Julius Kipngetich noted that preparing graduates for the workplace requires joint responsibility between companies and learning institutions.

” Institutions of higher learning and corporations have a shared responsibility to ensure graduates and young professionals have the requisite skills for the workplace. Our partnership with USIU-Africa will provide one-on-one opportunities for students to get guidance on personal and career development from a pool of seasoned professionals and mentors,” Kipngetich said.

Speaking during the partnership launch, the Vice Chancellor, USIU-Africa Margee Ensign said that the mentorship program will be highly beneficial to students as they transition to the corporate world.

“Workplace preparation will require partnerships between academia and industry players. Our university is always seeking for strategic linkages to prepare our students for the competitive job market. Our partnership with Jubilee Insurance will bridge the employability gaps across the region and enable our students to learn from the best,” said Ensign.

In addition to this, Jubilee Insurance Head of Human Resources, Ann Karanu noted that the company is committed to proactively support students and young professionals to better understand and prepare for the workplace.

She said that for the past few years they have been mentoring students from different universities and they believe that mentorship and job shadowing will enable young professionals to hone their skills and improve their career path.

For years, the job market has relied on tertiary and university institutions to produce ready-to-work graduates for the job market.

However, only 40 per cent of the students who complete technical training find employment.

The high unemployment rate is largely attributed to lack of employability skills among graduates.

The World Economic Forum indicates that critical thinking and problem-solving top the list of skills employers believe will grow in prominence for the next five years.