Wanted: Graduate engineers to learn as they work

Cephas Ventures Enterprises is hiring diploma graduate interns in mechanical, water or electrical engineering. The internship will run for six months. Cephas Ventures Enterprises is in Nakuru. Candidates must send their CVs by 28 January 2022.

Cephas Ventures Enterprises would hire six interns in two groups. The first three interns will report to work early this year followed by the second group of three interns after six months. Diploma graduates in mechanical, water or electrical engineering can send their CVs to hr@cephasventures.co.ke by 28 January 2022. Those with a BCE driving licence will have an added advantage, the firm said.

Who’s Cephas Ventures Enterprises?

It’s based in Nakuru. The firm deals in:

1. Borehole drilling
2. Borehole pump installation
3. Solar water pumping solution
4. Advance fabrication including arc welding, TIG welding for stainless steels and Computer Numerical Control plasma cutting.

Mr Peter Kariuki, project manager, Cephas Ventures Enterprises, said the firm will review the internship programme after one year. “We’ll look at the cost implications the programme will have on our business,” he said.

Mr Kariuki said the firm could employ more interns and give them longer term of one year if there was a way to share the cost.

He asked the government to be giving private firms some of the interns it recruits under Public Service Internship Programme. This would reduce private firms’ cost of hiring interns because the government would pay them monthly allowance. The government’s interns are placed in state agencies.

Why is internship useful?

Mr Kariuki said most students coming out of colleges lacked practical skills. “You get someone who is a graduate of water engineering but cannot weld a PPR pipe,” he told Water Tower. “You have a graduate of mechanical engineering but cannot explain how hydraulic works.”

Lack of practical skills comes from the curriculum, which emphasises on passing examinations, Mr Kariuki said. “The time students spend in industry [internship] is seen as time wasted,” he said. “We must integrate classroom with industry.”

Mr Kariuki said although colleges require students to go through internships they aren’t monitored. In addition, the internships take short time.

“A student learns in the classroom for three years, but gets an internship for three months,” he said. “In China, for example, they put more emphasis on practical learning.”

READ: Kenya Water Institute has trained 3,500 water specialists