Students form the School-Leavers’ Attachment Scheme leave for University
The first cohort of students under the School Leavers’ Attachment Initiative recently left the programme to join various universities within Kenya. The students, who were drawn from Kilifi, Kaloleni and Ganze districts, had been attached to the programme since November 2010 for a four month programme where they were they got the opportunity to gain valuable work experience which will be useful in their future careers.
The School Leavers Attachment programme, coordinated by Alun Davies, is a pilot initiative that seeks to nurture the interest of talented students in health research careers as well as contribute to the broader KEMRI-Kilifi community engagement strategy by promoting mutual understanding between researchers and the community.
Selecting the six attachment students involved liaising with the District Education Officers (DEO) for Kilifi, Ganze and Kaloleni to identify 30 students who achieved B+ or above in the 2009 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations (KCSE). These students were invited for an open day at the programme where they got an opportunity to learn about locally conducted research and complete an application form for the attachment. Twelve students were selected for face-to-face interviews based on the application forms and from this, six successful candidates were selected.
The six were Katana Kombe James from St. Georges High School, Gona Rehema from Ribe Girls Secondary School, Mrima Lucky Mgandi from Majaoni Secondary School, Kilifi, Ngoma C. Duncan from Ribe Boys High School, Kazungu F S Huldah from Ribe Girls Secondary School and Mrima H Patrick from St Teresa, Kaloleni.
The attachment programme involved two week job rotations within six different departments and clusters including Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Operations (Human Resources, Finance, Procurement), Socio Behavioural Research and Community Liaison Groups (SBR & CLG), Field studies (EPI-DSS), Wards and Labs.
During these rotations, students got the opportunity to shadow members of staff; develop their critical thinking skills through reading and discussing research articles and other documents; and to attend team meetings, seminars, journal clubs, SSP, SCC and CCC. In addition to this, students attended fortnightly tutorials aimed at consolidating some of the learning at each department/cluster, and developing professional skills. Tutorial workshops included: Qualitative and quantitative research methods; communication and presentation skills; writing a Curriculum Vitae, a cover letter; and preparing for a job interview.
As the students head out to university, plans are in place to invite them for a further one month attachment per year during their vacation periods until they graduate. This will be useful to monitor students’ progress and sustain their interest in pursuing science related careers over the period of their tertiary education.
By Alun Davies, Kemri-Wellcome Trust Research Unit, Kilifi, Kenya – 2011
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