Entrepreneurship Training and Development and Growth of Youth Enterprises: Case Study of Youth Enterprise Development Fund (Yedf), Kajiado North Constituency

Abstract

An important aspect of economic growth in any given nation is the entrepreneurs who promote change and initiate development activities. Due to the inability of large organizations to create enough employment opportunities for our youth, the SME sector has received considerable attention In 2006, the government being in cognizant of the dangers posed by youth unemployment established the Youth Enterprise Development Fund with the main aim of reducing youth unemployment. The fund has established a unit known as Enterprise Development Unit whose main work is building capacity of youth enterprises that have either benefited directly or indirectly from the fund through entrepreneurship training. The main issue of concern in the development of youth enterprises is the generally high failure rate. The purpose of this research project was to evaluate the current youth entrepreneurship programs to establish the effectiveness in ensuring beneficiaries are well equipped to start and run viable ventures. The study established that the quality of training being given to the youth does not result to significant growth and development of the youth enterprises. There is therefore need to revise the curriculum used by YEDF to include other training areas such as internship and mentorship in order to improve performance and survival rates of the enterprises.