There is no approved structured ICT professional training program in Kenya. Public and private organizations simply offer organizationspecific training and professional development programs for freshly recruited graduates of ICT degrees. The training and professional development is often through mentoring by senior ICT professionals and a series of training programs tailored to specific industries. This means that the professional development outcomes after approximately three years of experience are not uniform and depend on the specific company. ‘anecdotal evidence suggests that ICT degree graduates remain unemployed for extended periods or get employed as low-end ICT technicians.’ The lack of structured ICT professional development is especially acute in Government and many not-for-profit public sector institutions (e.g., universities, schools and hospitals). This is partly because of the inability of these institutions to attract and retain high-end ICT professionals that could then mentor and train junior professionals. This also means that such Government departments or institutions do not have a career growth plan that can be matched by the private sector in terms of training and remuneration. There are a number of professional certification programs available for graduates. These are normally vendor or product specific. For example, CISCO certifications are popular with network professionals. Leading ERP companies also provide their own certifications (e.g., SAP, Oracle, Microsoft certifications). Some companies also arrange for boot-camp training of ICT professionals. However, most of the certification programs are too expensive for Kenyan ICT professionals, particularly in the public sector and for Government ICT staff. Although professional ICT associations like IEEE Kenya chapter, the Computer Society of Kenya or the newly formed ICT association aim to promote professional development, most of the ICT graduates do not join any of the associations possibly because they perceive there is nothing to gain from joining these associations. ..46 .................................................................................................................Towards ...............a...Digital .............Kenya ............ Apart from the limited and varied professional development opportunities, anecdotal evidence suggests that ICT degree graduates remain unemployed for extended periods or get employed as low-end ICT technicians. Some ICT graduates attempt to start their own businesses but because of limited business training and/or ICT industry training, most of the enterprises remain very small and are not successful. 4.1.2 Driving Forces In Kenya, many factors are driving the demand for high-end ICT professionals including the following: a) Increased demand from the national and County Governments that aim to provide e-Government services and to automate their internal processes. b) Increased demand from public institutions (e.g., universities, schools, hospitals etc) that are in different stages of automating business processes to improve service delivery and to increase efficiency of operations often by deploying information systems and networks. c) The need to create employment opportunities in the ICT sector by creating new ICT companies to develop new applications and provide support services to businesses and the Government. The employment opportunities include business process outsourcing and IT enabled services to local and international organizations. d) Increased demand from large local firms and SMEs that are automating their operations. This include the mobile operators, data companies, broadcasting companies, financial institutions, manufacturing enterprises, agricultural enterprises, tourism among others. e) Increased demand for ICT professionals from the large multinational corporations and ICT companies that are setting up their Africa headquarters in Nairobi. This includes Airtel Africa, IBM, Oracle, and Google among others. f) High labour cost of high-end ICT professionals. ‘there are many factors driving the need for high-end ICT proffessionals’ 47 Towards a Digital Kenya ..............................................................................................................................................................