Skills for Prosperity Kenya, is a 30 month, UK Government Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) funded programme to help increase capacity for inclusive economic growth in Kenya due to more productive and equitable skills sectors improving employability, employment opportunities and the earning potential of beneficiaries.  The programme consortium includes the OU, the International Labour Organisation and is led by Leonard Cheshire.

The programme aims to:

1.    Strengthen education and industry links

2.    Develop an enabling environment for a strong skills ecosystem

3.    Improve access to Higher Education (HE) and Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for marginalized and unemployed youth

More Kenyans than ever are studying at university. Since 2008 the higher education (HE) sector in Kenya has expanded rapidly to 74 universities. By 2018, enrolment had more than doubled to 538,820 (CUE, 2019), with a 11.46% Gross Enrolment Ratio (UNESCO, 2020), including a 58:42 ratio of Men and Women enrolling in HE, a gender ratio gap which is slowly narrowing. According to the World Bank Report, Improving Higher Education Performance in Kenya (2019), this is slightly higher than the regional average of 9.3 percent but much lower than the upper-middle-income economies that Kenya aspires to emulate.

Enhancing and scaling quality Online Distance Learning (ODL) as a means of improving access to HE and developing a skilled workforce, is a priority for the Kenyan government.

Many universities in Kenya have made significant steps towards setting up ODL departments and increasing the number of ODL degrees on offer. Throughout 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic required many institutions to shift their teaching to remote or distance modes, accelerating the use of ODL in some form.