Kenyans Students Need Mentorship and Barclays is Leading from the Front

A lot has been said about the majority of Kenyan university students. According to many employers, the majority of university graduates in Kenya cannot perform any practical work despite having a degree in the same field.

For a very long time, there has been a joke that Kenyan Universities have increasingly been producing accountants who cannot count, engineers who cannot construct, doctors who cannot treat, pilots who cannot fly a plane and chefs who can only eat.

The truth is that the Kenyan education system is more theoretical as compared to the much needed practical skills. This can be blamed on how the universities are structured or how the education system itself is crafted to only be exam-oriented and not equipping the student with the skills that might help them in future.

To help students realize their dreams by accomplishing their education without the constraints of school fees, Barclays Bank of Kenya rolled out a scholarship program that has been helping many students across the country to have access to the much-needed university education.

The bank launched a three-year scholarship programme in September 2017 to cater for school fees and upkeep money for bright, needy university students. The programme is a partnership between the bank and Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) who are tasked to administer the fund on behalf of the bank.

To actualize this, Barclays Bank of Kenya set aside 65 million shillings to support the fund in the 2017/18 academic year.

Each student received 150,000 shillings which covered tuition and accommodation fees, laptop purchase and upkeep money.

To help students to improve their study techniques, increase motivation, improve organizational skills, increase student confidence and raise exam performance, Barclays Bank of Kenya has taken another step to invite Elevate to come to Kenya and hold a series of workshops with the beneficiaries of phase 1 scholarship programme.

Elevate’s study skills workshops and seminars are designed to achieve behavioral change amongst students. It isn’t enough that students simply understand what they need to do in their study. The challenge in any study skills programme is getting students to use and apply the skills they learn.  Elevate gets students using the skills from its seminars and workshops through an integrated process that works.