The Aga Khan Foundation East Africa launched a new programme to assist young graduates apply their academic skills to real-life situations.

The launch came during the premiere of this year's Oscar award-winning film, Shakespeare in Love, at Nairobi's 20th Century Cinema, hosted by the Foundation.

The project - The Young Development Professionals Programme - aims at arming the graduates for the professional world through an innovate two-year internship.

The course comprises on-the-job experience, academic training and a mentor programme and is geared towards building strong development-oriented leadership in East Africa. Part of the programme will involve academic training at the University of Witswatersrand, South Africa.

The programme was launched on Thursday evening as part of the Silver Jubilee festivities marking the foundation's contribution to development in Kenya. The celebrations are being hosted under the theme: "A World of Oppportunity."

The Young Development Professionals Programme "will begin this year as a small pilot programme, with a select and highly talented group of young professionals from around East Africa," said Mrs Nooreen Kassam, the foundation's national vice-chairperson.

She said the recruits will rotate between the various projects of the foundation, learning by doing and by interacting with senior staff.

She said there will be academic training on key elements of development alongside the rotations.

"A faculty of the University of Witswatersrand will teach subjects such as project planning and implementation, monitoring, evaluation and financial management," she said.

"Those who successfully complete the programme will receive accreditation from the university, enabling them to enter the market place extremely qualified."

Mrs Kassam said the ground-breaking initiative will ultimately help reduce the hiring expatriates in the region.

Addressing guests, the foundation's national chairman, Mr Yusuf Keshavjee, said the Aga Khan Foundation had during its 25 years of existence tried to create a world of opportunity for Kenya.

It has been doing this through "providing local communities with a greater range of choices; creation of sustainable solutions; and by building strong, effective and transparent institutions that represent and serve Kenyans," he said.

He said the foundation helps Kenyans "realise that they are able to bring about changes in their lives without relying on others to do it for them. Our role is to help Kenyans bring about changes they themselves identify as important," he said.

Mr Keshavjee said the foundation had made major inroads in areas of education, health and community-development programmes.

He said the foundation had spread its operations to Uganda and Tanzania, and called on the region's people to continue supporting its efforts to be a catalyst for development.

Comments\Views about this article