Despite universities graduating thousands of engineers every year, many young professionals are leaving campus only to find that the industry's biggest projects offer little room for them to gain experience or build careers, with foreign-led turnkey contracts increasingly shutting local engineers out of critical work.
Speaking on Radio Generation on Thursday, Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya President Gabriel Jabongo said the biggest challenge facing graduate engineers is not a lack of qualifications but the limited number of well-structured jobs available in the country.
"The hurdle generally is that there are no jobs in Kenya, or the engineering jobs which are there are not well structured," Jabongo said.
He said the situation has been made worse by the growing use of turnkey contracts in major infrastructure projects, where foreign companies are awarded complete responsibility for designing and constructing projects before handing them over to the client.
According to Jabongo, this model has reduced opportunities for Kenyan engineers to take part in important stages of project development, especially design work that is critical for building professional experience.
"Right now, we find that most of the infrastructure engineering projects are given as turnkey projects to foreign companies," he said.
Jabongo explained that under a turnkey arrangement, one contractor handles the design, procurement and construction before handing over a completed project to the client.
"A turnkey is a project where you do the design, you implement, and you hand a completely finished product to the government," he explained, noting that such projects can also be undertaken for private clients.
He said many of the foreign firms complete engineering designs in their home countries before coming to Kenya to carry out construction, leaving local engineers with limited opportunities to participate in the planning and design process.
"So the field is thin, and the university keeps on channelling engineers outside. But some of them don't get the place to showcase whatever they have learnt," he said.
Jabongo said the Association of Consulting Engineers of Kenya has stepped in to support young professionals by working with member firms to provide graduate engineers with mentorship and practical training.
However, he noted that the number of available placements is far below the growing number of engineering graduates entering the job market every year, making it difficult for many to gain the experience needed to advance their careers.
He also blamed poor career guidance in some secondary schools, saying many students enter engineering programmes without a clear understanding of the profession or the range of opportunities available after graduation.
"Unfortunately, we have some secondary schools where the career teachers are not well informed," he said.
Jabongo said many graduates set their sights only on large employers such as Kenya Power, the Kenya National Highways Authority (KeNHA) and Safaricom, yet many smaller engineering firms also offer valuable opportunities for growth and experience.
"But we also have some other small industries which are doing very well," he said.
He urged students to begin researching engineering career paths while still in school so they can make informed decisions and widen their employment expectations instead of focusing only on a handful of major organisations.