In today’s labour market, post-secondary education allows youth to strengthen their skills and improve qualifications. Once our scholars began to graduate from secondary school, many of them wished to pursue some form of post-secondary training, but once again faced financial constraints. In response to this need, we experimented with various ways of providing support to graduates wishing to pursue post-secondary school. Our priority was to find a fair way to support as many of our graduates as possible, without compromising our ability to continue our secondary school scholarship program. 

After research, deliberation, and pilot projects, we decided to launch our post-secondary support (PSS) program in 2013. In Kenya, students who achieve marks above a certain grade on their national secondary school completion exams (Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education, KCSE) receive a low-interest government loan to attend post-secondary institution in Kenya (e.g., public university, technical college, etc.).  These loans cover tuition after the first semester of school. The student is responsible for their first semester of tuition and their living expenses, this is what CMETrust supports for the duration of their program of study (2-4 years) at an average cost of approximately $4100 CAD per student. 

When we first began this program, only one or two CMETrust secondary graduates qualified. In 2015 the first female graduate qualified and in 2016, all 9 of our graduates qualified. We haven't looked back. CMETrust scholars, inspired by the opportunity to continue their education, are exceeding everyone’s expectations! Click here to meet CMETrust Post-Secondary Graduate, Ketty Ajuma.

The increased rate of qualification is a wonderful outcome for the scholars and for their community. We need to ensure we have the resources to continue to offer this opportunity to our graduates. Please consider supporting our work today.