A simple question, a harder answer: Career guidance and rural youth in Kenya

I remember my father asking me, when I was only six years old, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It was a simple question, but one that sparked my curiosity about the possibilities ahead of me.

我记得我六岁时父亲问我：“你长大后想做什么？”这是一个简单的问题，但却激发了我对未来可能性的好奇心。

Years later, through my work with One Girl Can (OGC) , I came to see how much it matters for young people to have the information, support, and exposure they need to answer that question.

多年后，通过与 One Girl Can (OGC) 的合作，我逐渐认识到，对于年轻人来说，获得回答这一问题所需的信息、支持和曝光是多么重要。

I grew up in Kenya and attended St. Theresa Mbooni Girls’ Secondary School in Makueni County.

我在肯尼亚长大，就读于马库埃尼县的圣特蕾莎姆布尼女子中学。

Years later, I returned to the same school in a very different role.

多年后，我以截然不同的角色回到同一所学校。

Through OGC , I became part of efforts to support girls in this and other secondary schools to think more intentionally about their futures.

通过 OGC，我成为支持这所中学和其他中学的女孩更认真地思考自己的未来的努力的一部分。

Through mentorship workshops in 11 partner schools across Kenya, OGC mentors worked with girls to explore career paths, consider possibilities beyond those traditionally associated with women, and challenge gender stereotypes about what they could study, become, and contribute to.

通过在肯尼亚 11 所合作学校举办的导师研讨会，OGC 导师与女孩们一起探索职业道路，考虑传统上与女性相关的可能性，并挑战关于她们可以学习、成为和贡献的性别刻板印象。

A conversation with a mentor could introduce a girl to a career she had never considered.

与导师的对话可以向女孩介绍她从未考虑过的职业。

Meeting a woman working in a male-dominated field could make a previously unimaginable pathway feel possible.

遇到一位在男性主导领域工作的女性可能会让一条以前难以想象的道路成为可能。

Having someone ask about her interests, strengths, and ambitions could give her permission to think beyond the expectations around her.

有人询问她的兴趣、优势和抱负，可以让她的思考超出周围的预期。

At One Girl Can, this shift in what girls saw as possible was reflected in the pathways many scholarship recipients pursued.

在 One Girl Can，女孩们所看到的可能性的这种转变反映在许多奖学金获得者追求的道路上。

Almost 80% of OGC university scholarship recipients study STEM-related fields.

近 80% 的 OGC 大学奖学金获得者学习 STEM 相关领域。

For me, this pointed to what can happen when girls have access to information, encouragement, mentorship, and role models that challenge traditional gender expectations.

对我来说，这表明当女孩获得信息、鼓励、指导和挑战传统性别期望的榜样时会发生什么。

What happens to young people who do not have access to these opportunities?

没有机会获得这些机会的年轻人会怎样？

What happens to those whose schools cannot help them understand the different pathways available after secondary school?

对于那些学校无法帮助他们了解中学毕业后可用的不同途径的人来说，会发生什么？

What about a young person in a rural community with limited exposure to universities, colleges, technical and vocational education and training ( TVET ) institutions, or the changing world of work?

对于农村社区的年轻人来说，他们对大学、学院、技术和职业教育与培训 (TVET) 机构或不断变化的工作环境的接触有限，该怎么办？

These questions matter because the transition from school to what comes next is not always straightforward.

这些问题很重要，因为从学校到接下来的生活的过渡并不总是那么简单。

Across Africa, more than 72 million young people are not in employment, education, or training, and two-thirds of them are young women.

在整个非洲，超过 7200 万年轻人没有就业、没有接受教育或培训，其中三分之二是年轻女性。

Young people’s career aspirations often remain concentrated in a narrow range of traditional occupations, while according to OECD survey data, two in five 15-year-olds report having no clear career plans.

年轻人的职业抱负往往仍然集中在狭窄的传统职业中，而根据经合组织的调查数据，五分之二的 15 岁年轻人表示没有明确的职业规划。

Gender norms and stereotypes can further shape aspirations and opportunities, influencing what subjects, careers, and futures girls and boys perceive as appropriate or attainable.

性别规范和刻板印象可以进一步塑造愿望和机会，影响女孩和男孩认为合适或可以实现的科目、职业和未来。

There is also a gap between aspirations and labor-market realities.

愿望与劳动力市场现实之间也存在差距。

Across ten African countries , an OECD analysis found substantial mismatches between young people’s aspirations and available jobs.

经合组织的一项分析发现，在十个非洲国家中，年轻人的愿望与现有工作之间存在严重不匹配。

The response, in my view, is not to lower aspirations but to provide better information about emerging opportunities and the skills different pathways require.

在我看来，回应不是降低期望，而是提供有关新兴机会和不同途径所需技能的更好信息。

This gap between aspiration and information is where career guidance matters.

愿望和信息之间的差距正是职业指导的重要性所在。

The decisions facing young people after secondary school are significant: university, TVET, employment, entrepreneurship, or another pathway.

中学毕业后，年轻人面临的决定非常重要：大学、职业技术教育与培训、就业、创业还是其他途径。

Gender, socioeconomic circumstances , and where a young person grows up can shape the opportunities they can see, access, and pursue.

性别、社会经济环境以及年轻人的成长环境可以影响他们能够看到、获得和追求的机会。

Rural youth may have less exposure to career information, networks, role models, and institutions than their urban peers.

与城市同龄人相比，农村青年接触职业信息、网络、榜样和机构的机会可能较少。

My experience at One Girl Can made me increasingly interested in what happens between the classroom and the world beyond it.

我在 One Girl Can 的经历让我对课堂与课堂之外的世界之间发生的事情越来越感兴趣。

Are young people receiving the information they need?

年轻人是否收到了他们需要的信息？

Are girls and boys equally encouraged to explore different possibilities?

女孩和男孩是否同样被鼓励探索不同的可能性？

And are schools equipped to provide guidance that responds to the changing world of work?

学校是否有能力提供应对不断变化的工作世界的指导？

These are questions I am now exploring as an Echidna Global Scholar at the Brookings Institution.

这些是我现在作为布鲁金斯学会针鼹全球学者正在探索的问题。

Kenya has provided career guidance and counseling within its education system for several decades, with efforts to strengthen these services through initiatives such as the 2014 Career Guidance Handbook and the 2023 National Policy Framework for Career Guidance in Kenya .

几十年来，肯尼亚一直在其教育系统内提供职业指导和咨询，并努力通过 2014 年职业指导手册和 2023 年肯尼亚职业指导国家政策框架等举措加强这些服务。

Yet a gap remains between policy and practice.

然而政策与实践之间仍然存在差距。

The 2023 policy highlights challenges including weak provision, limited professionalization, changing education and labor markets, and difficult school-to-work transitions.

2023 年的政策凸显了一些挑战，包括供给薄弱、专业化有限、教育和劳动力市场不断变化，以及从学校到工作的过渡困难。

Against this backdrop, my research examines how Kenya can strengthen its existing career guidance systems to support more equitable school-to-work transitions for rural youth, with particular attention to making these systems more gender-responsive.

在此背景下，我的研究探讨了肯尼亚如何加强现有的职业指导系统，以支持农村青年更公平地从学校到工作的过渡，特别关注使这些系统更具性别敏感性。

Again, I keep coming back to that simple question my father asked me when I was six: What do you want to be when you grow up?

我再次想起我六岁时父亲问我的那个简单问题：你长大后想做什么？

Perhaps the more important question is whether we are giving every young person a genuine opportunity to answer it.

也许更重要的问题是我们是否给每个年轻人一个真正的机会来回答这个问题。