The Kenyan talent pipeline behind outsourcing decisions: how many graduates, in which disciplines, with what language capability.
What this report covers
Demographics and the labour market; graduate output and the university system; vocational and technical training; English proficiency; and skills, retention and availability by function.
Headline findings
- Kenyan universities produced 123,928 graduates in 2024, up 24% on the 99,829 of 2023 (Commission for University Education).
- By field, the largest cohorts were education (34,156), business, administration and management (28,005), computing and ICT (8,627) and engineering (7,023). Education is the largest single field but feeds the domestic schools system; business and management is the largest discipline outsourcing actually draws on.
- Kenya has an estimated 642,000 B2-level English speakers, the third-largest such pool in Africa (GBS World, via KenInvest).
- Kenya ranks 19th of 123 countries on the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index with a score of 593, in the “High” band; Nairobi scores 595.
- ICPAK has more than 40,000 registered accountants, which is why finance and accounting is among the deepest functions available.
Method and limitations
Graduate figures are CUE’s own counts of graduates, not degrees awarded — the two differ where students complete dual degrees. The 2024 cohort splits 67,289 male and 56,077 female with 562 unclassified; a widely circulated figure of 123,366 is the male-plus-female subtotal and understates the total by 562.
The 642,000 English figure is an addressable-pool estimate published by GBS World and carried in KenInvest’s sector pack, not a census count. The EF index measures self-selected online test takers, so it is a comparative ranking rather than a population measurement.
We do not publish a national TVET graduate figure. The number that circulates could not be traced to TVETA, CDACC or KNBS, so it has been withdrawn pending a primary source.
Inside the full report
The full CUE discipline table, how the 123,366 figure that circulates differs from the published total, the English-proficiency evidence and its limits, and why the cross-country attrition comparison was withdrawn. Request it below.