Poor , disabled and unemployed: linking education to labour market outcomes for persons with physical disabilities in Nyeri, Kenya

Abstract

A widely-held belief is that education affects people's economic status by facilitating access to the labour market and raising their earnings. This paper explores the linkage between education and its labour market outcomes for young persons with physical disabilities in the context of poverty. Specifically,the paper analyses the strength of education as an enabler of access to job markets, and how this varies at different exit points in the education system. Data were collected from Nyeri District in Kenya, from a total of 30 participants in 2 different sites (urban and rural). The study utilized the qualitative interview, while the data were analysed using Atlas.ti. The analysis establishes that education levels notwithstanding, young persons with physical disabilities are evidently closed out of the skilled and formal labour markets. It concludes that disability and poverty interact to create a string of inhibitions to job markets, and that any high level of schooling needs to be coupled with strategies that break this cycle.