Audience: Voices

She was one of the first graduates of Generation Kenya in 2016, and soon found a job at Subway, the quick-service restaurant chain. She’s already been promoted to assistant manager.

A tough start in life

Stellah was born in rural Kenya, and was just seven years old when her mother passed away. A cousin took her in, but had little money to spare. “My life was very difficult,” says Stellah. But she persevered, completing high school and going on to obtain a one-year IT diploma. She began teaching school children, but wanted more. That ambition took her to Nairobi, where she heard about Generation and enrolled right away in our retail sales program.

Generation taught me how to manage people—and myself

“I wanted to explore myself”, Stellah says—and Generation gave her ample opportunity to do that. It also taught her the people skills that she would need to succeed in the workplace at Subway—and in her career. “Generation taught me how to handle people. Now, if a customer is upset, I now know how to stay calm, actually listen to them, and offer them a solution.”

I got my promotion!

At the age of only 21, Stellah was promoted to an assistant manager position at Subway. She credits Generation for helping build her confidence—and she also benefited from close mentorship from a manager who spotted her potential. Stellah’s new role came with a salary increase, and she is now saving for the future as well as supporting her grandfather. “My next step is to become a manager at Subway, but some day I want to continue my education,” Stellah says.

A lifelong community

Generation not only gave Stellah a step-up in her career, it also helped her build a network for life. She is part of a community of Generation graduates who communicate regularly on WhatsApp and meet up once or twice a month. “I have many friends from Generation—and I’m still in touch with the coaches from my program,” Stellah says. Apart from supporting one another, that community spreads the word about Generation and gives other young Kenyans hope for their future. “Everyone has the potential to grow,” says Stellah. “As long as you have passion for what you are doing, everything is possible.”

A Bold Move

About a year ago, Senait made an adventurous decision and moved from the Middle East to Dallas. After her move, she got a part-time job as a food demonstrator at Costco but felt there had to be more out there with her educational background. Originally from Ethiopia, Senait has an associate’s degree in marketing, but knew her communication and time management skills could use some work. That’s when she found the Generation Retail Career Advancement program. Since graduating from the Generation program, she’s obtained a full-time job in Tech Support at Verizon FiOS.

“I really enjoy the new work. It teaches me how to concentrate and handle many different tasks at once. This flexibility has helped me work safely and work confidently.”

Professional Development

Like many Generation students, Senait had incredible potential but needed a little extra help and support to cross the finish line to a successful career. The Retail Career Advancement program takes the capabilities students already have and pairs them with the “soft skills” employers need and want — like how to solve a customer’s problem or how to go above and beyond for a customer. Senait says, “Generation has taught me a lot about professional development, including how to learn new things and how to be successful in any job.”

As part of the curriculum, speakers employed in the field often visit the classroom to talk with students and give them a chance to hear stories about what it takes to thrive in professional retail jobs. “Generation has helped me in a lot of ways — from self-confidence to how I present myself. The real-life experiences I heard from guest speakers in class taught me about how hard they work to succeed.”

Student Support — Above and Beyond

Generation’s mentors and instructors work one-on-one with students to ensure success. Senait says that the entire Generation team is truly dedicated to their work and provides outstanding resources to students. In addition, Senait says the network students form with their classmates is invaluable. This benefit is articulated time and again by Generation students.

“My fellow classmates helped me when I lost track and we worked together as a team. I learned how to consistently work hard and how to work in groups.”

Because mentors are integrally involved with their student’s training, Senait’s Generation mentor, Joshua, says he saw incredible growth in her career and professionalism skills in the Retail Career Advancement program. He says her confidence, presentation, passion, and teamwork abilities have all improved.

Onward

In addition to enjoying her new-found career, Senait loves to read and listen to gospel songs. “I’m so excited about this opportunity with Verizon FiOS. Learning how to successfully serve customers, support them with the tech issues they are having, and developing viable new leads is incredibly fulfilling.”

Facing a layoff at her job, she wanted to make a career change and needed advice about jobs in IT. Taneeisha also knew she needed certifications to succeed in the field, which she couldn’t afford to pay for herself, so she took a chance and moved to Jacksonville, FL to join the Generation IT program. Since graduating, she’s become a full-time Software Tester for Sportsmedia Technology in Jacksonville.

Coder by Nature

You can hear it in her voice when she talks about it. Taneeisha has always had a passion for tech and coding. What started out in High School as a hobby—helping friends and family members develop their MySpace profile pages—turned into an important discovery. She was dipping her feet into the world of coding. With dreams of a promising new career in a field that she loved, Taneeisha recognized the need for certifications and professional training to take her to the next level and land a full-time position in the field. This led Taneeisha to Generation.

It’s the Extra Things

Working together with students, instructors, and mentors, Taneeisha says, was the most important skill she learned in the program. “We did a lot of team-building activities that could make you uncomfortable, but the ultimate goal was to learn how to get along with others.”

Taneeisha also says that having mentors and instructors who were always there to help was really important to her success. “Chris [my instructor] did a really good job at making sure you received any materials that you needed. He always seemed to live by his email,” she laughed.

Exceeding Expectations

Taneeisha believes wholeheartedly that the Generation IT program provided the opportunity to further her career in the IT field. She says she’s gained valuable soft skills too, like learning to remain positive, engaging with new people who have different perspectives, and working to give new ideas a fair chance. “It’s honestly been more than I expected.”

A Bright Future

As for Taneeisha’s future, her dream is to one day head out west to Silicon Valley and create her own app. “I see myself becoming a developer and creating my own apps or software to help benefit people who are constantly on the go.”

“I wake up in the morning and I’m glad I took that risk—the opportunity—to further my career.”

Finding young people with the skills and personal drive to sell life insurance was always a challenge—until Prudential partnered with Generation. Julius has found Generation graduates to be well-prepared, well-presented, and driven by entrepreneurial energy. They make many more sales than other recruits do.

We had a recruiting problem

For years, Prudential would bring in large numbers of recruits and spend time and energy training them as insurance salespeople—but they had a very low success rate. “People would come in their masses. We’d take them through the business opportunity and how to go out and sell. But out of that big group, we’d soon be left with only three or four people.” Generation has helped solve that problem—in a few important ways.

Generation: Shaping entrepreneurs

Generation graduates “know they are not coming in to be employees,” Julius says. “They are coming in as entrepreneurs.” When he calls a potential recruit on the phone, he always says: “I’m from Prudential Life, and I’d like to give you an opportunity to make money.” The typical response from a Generation graduate is: “Wow! When can I come? Where are your offices?” As Julius says: “That’s the mindset Generation has instilled in them. It really makes them different.”

Ready to hit the ground running

Generation graduates are equipped to start selling insurance products from day one, thanks to the practical skills taught in our programs, Julius says. “They know how to identify a customer, approach that customer, and bring them closer.” Just as important, they have the grooming and confidence required of great salespeople. “Customers think, ‘This person is telling me to plan for the future, but do they look the part?’ Generation has helped make sure they do.”

Better sales, broader reach

Generation has had impact where it matters most: the bottom line. Julius says the typical Generation graduate closes one sale for every five customers they approach—compared to as many as one in 20 for other agents. Generation graduates are also helping Prudential expand its customer base. “They’re taking insurance well outside the city, into rural villages. They’ve helped us to penetrate the market in areas that we’d not been able to reach.” That makes him upbeat about his industry’s future: Julius believes insurance penetration in Kenya could double by 2020.

Dominic joined Generation in early summer 2017. After his graduation from the IT program, Fanatics, a global sports licensing company in Jacksonville, hired Dominic as a desktop support technician. Now CompTIA A+, CompTIA Fundamentals, and Cisco-certified, he credits Generation and his mentors and instructors for his success. 

Why Generation

“I wanted to surround myself with motivated and driven individuals. I realized that it is okay to be myself when it’s paired with professionalism, goal-setting, and taking proactive action towards my goals.”

Why IT

“I’ve been passionate about technology since I was 14. My sophomore year of high school, I became certified in systems virtualization. My junior year of high school I acquired an entry-level Cisco networking certification, and my final year before I graduated, I acquired my Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA). This landed me a job as a wireless data network engineer, but I also worked an awful fast-food restaurant job while juggling the data network job for about a year. I realized at that point that I needed to get back on track and I saw my opportunity at Generation.”

On the Horizon

As an avid skateboarder and photographer, he says “having competition and developing friendships with classmates was my favorite part of the program. Right now, as a desktop support technician, I provide desk-side PC, printer, and systems support for 1500 users. I’m currently studying for my associate’s certification in Microsoft Cloud Platform. My goal eventually is to be a cloud solutions architect.”

Since its launch in 2011, Gilchery has signed on several major banks as clients. Gilchery struggled to find recruits with the right skills to staff its call centers—until it partnered with Generation.

Hard to find: recruits with emotional intelligence

To meet fast-growing demand from banks and other corporate clients, Gilchery needed to recruit dozens of agents for its call centers—but struggled. “Our biggest challenge has been to find the right staff,” Gilbert says. “Most young graduates don’t have the tolerance and emotional intelligence to deal with indebted customers, who can be highly uncooperative.” His company faced high levels of staff turnover: “For every five people I employed, I’d be left with only one after two or three months. It was very frustrating, because we’d spent a lot of time and resources training them.”

Bringing the right skills and attitudes

Generation has helped solve Gilchery’s recruitment problem, providing the company with job-ready call-center agents. “Generation was able to help me find people with the right attitude, high tolerance levels, and the ability to put up with anything and still remain composed,” Gilbert says. “They are able to calm customers down and strike a deal.” Generation graduates are also much more likely to stay the course, which has boosted Gilchery’s employee retention rate.

Productivity that improves month after month

Generation graduates are also fast learners, Gilbert says: “They are able to catch up very fast. Their productivity is improving month after month. We are able to make more collections than before, which is making our clients happy.” As a result, Gilchery’s revenues and creditor book have grown rapidly. “We are paid based on what we really recover”, Gilbert says. “It is the very purpose of our existence, and the basis of the trust that clients have given us.”

Making Generation a long-term partner

After hiring 15 Generation graduates and seeing their impact on the business, Gilchery hired 25 more. Then, as the company continued to grow rapidly, it asked Generation to develop a customized training program for it—and so develop a steady stream of new call-center agents. “It makes business sense to engage Generation,” Gilbert explains. “I get real value from that engagement.”

Liberty Eagle, Subway’s Kenyan franchise holder, targeted rapid growth—but it struggled to find recruits with job-ready skills and management potential. Generation helped solve that problem: today, around 40 percent of Subway’s local staff are Generation graduates.

A higher interview hit ratio

Hundreds of young Kenyans apply to join Subway each week. But most of them “don’t know what it means to have a full-time job, and don’t understand the standards we demand here,” Alex says. Out of every 100 job-seekers, only two or three make it through Subway’s recruitment process—wasting precious HR time. That changed when the company partnered with Generation, whose graduates have a much greater success rate in Subway’s interviews.

Employees who stay the course

Generation graduates are also more likely than other recruits to stay with Subway. “The higher retention rate is a big win for us,” says Alex. “In our business, high turnover is bad: new employees don’t know the systems, aren’t comfortable talking with customers, and need training.” With Generation, Subway has found “people that stay with us for a couple of years and really commit to learning in our system.”

Stronger integrity, less shrinkage

Working at Subway’s sandwich shops, employees handle a lot of cash each day—which makes theft a strong temptation. But Generation graduates have proved to have a high degree of honesty and integrity. In Alex’s view, Generation’s close-knit network encourages ethical behavior: “There are teachers, mentors and fellow students who have been responsible for their success, and they don’t want to let them down.”

Managers of the future

Alex is delighted that, just 18 months after Subway first partnered with Generation, several of our graduates have already been promoted to managerial positions—helping the company to fill most of its supervisory roles from within. “We really try to hire people with potential, and pick out people early who have the drive to serve customers and the attention to detail that they’ll need to be successful. Generation has made that a lot easier for us.”

The business case for Generation

Recognizing the value that Generation has created for Subway, the company was one of the first partners in Kenya to agree to contribute financially for every graduate it employed. “We’ve seen a clear business case—and we’re willing to pay for it,” says Alex. “We really like what Generation is doing.”

Two years without a job

Moses graduated from university in 2012, with a degree in biomedical science and technology. But his education did not equip him for the job market. He secured a one-year contract at a United Nations agency, but when it ended he struggled to find another position. “I went for two years without a proper job. I kept on trying, and applied for many, many jobs, but none came forward,” he says.

Generation made me self-reliant

At his wit’s end, Moses applied to join Generation Kenya’s financial services sales program. It was a life-changing experience. “Generation broadened my mind and made me realize I could be self-reliant. It helped me go and look for a job, but it also gave me the confidence to know I could start my career on my own basis.”

The six-week program taught Moses much more than how to make a sale: it also taught him life skills. “We learnt about relating to people and finding opportunities. I used to be kind of closed: I never used to talk much. Generation changed that in me.”

Winning in the world of work

Right after graduation, Moses was hired by NIC Bank to sell financial products to business clients. “The skills I acquired in Generation really apply in my job,” he says. “I meet clients every day, and often present to groups of people. For example, I recently made a presentation to the administration of a university. It went really well!” Moses’s manager says he is a star employee.

Changing lives, dreaming big

Thanks to his job, Moses’s financial situation has turned around. “Before Generation, I struggled to pay simple bills. Now it’s become much easier for me—and I can also help my brothers and sisters.” Moses is also investing for the future: he has used his earnings to start a small farm growing green beans, which he sells to local traders. It’s expanding fast: “From a quarter acre I’m gone to one acre. By the end of this year I’m going to be up to two acres.”

His dream for the future is to build a big business of his own; Moses wants to be part of a new generation of Kenyans unlocking the country’s growth. “If our youth can be empowered, then Kenya will really rise up economically.” Moses is already playing his part in that empowerment: in his spare time he mentors three recent Generation graduates.