Comedy was not my career choice: Jaymo Ule Msee

Growing up and attending school in Kiambu, I had dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up, and comedy or marketing was never in my mind. “I wanted to be a pilot,” says Wilson Muirani, aka Jaymo Ule Msee, still he ended up studying Political Science and Economics at the University of Nairobi.

Muirani, who says he will be on the presidential ballot box come 2022, adds that despite taking almost a decade to be what he is now, he is happy that he finally got to do what he loves. “I remember days when I would see an aeroplane up in the sky with the white smoke behind it, and some adults would tell us that it measured the weather while others would say that it was a way of guiding other planes on the right route.”

He adds that his career path changed again after listening to some career counsellors who had visited his school in Kiambu before taking his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE), who said that Law and Bachelor in commerce were at the time more marketable. “After listening to them, I changed my mind from becoming a pilot to be an accountant, but I did not qualify to be one, so I ended up doing Political Science and Economics.”

According to the comedian, choosing the right university is an essential milestone in the life of every applicant. However, not just in their lives. An immense number of things can affect the student’s decision: from the university’s prestige and other essential criteria usually taken into account by applicants to the emotional impulses.

Comedian

“Remember the time when you were deciding which degree to pursue or which university to attend? Or whether to choose a subject that you have been excelling at or are truly passionate about? Or whether to follow the crowd?” he ponders.

These decisions can be both exciting and intimidating at the same time because they determine the path that you are going to take in life. According to the comedian, after secondary school is the stage where you begin to explore all the possibilities – a change in environment to wipe the slate clean, a new social circle with like-minded peers and a journey of self-discovery.

Unfortunately, some students are unable to fulfil these aspirations for various reasons, such as financial constraints, peer pressure, parental expectations, poor grades, or lack of information and guidance. So they end up wasting their university years away chasing something that was never meant to be.

After years of observing how students and parents continuously seek out to find the right course, a group of people decided to step up and educate people about the available options and the different pathways they can take to achieve their career goals in life.

Hence Craydel.com was born.

Muirani says that he wishes he had such a platform when he was choosing his university course because Craydel is a platform that is on a mission to empower students with the technology, tools and guidance to access Career Guidance, Courses and institutions across Africa and the world.

“I took their test, and when the results came, it gave me three career options, one was in agriculture, then the other one was law and order, and the third was management and marketing. And as you know, management and marketing are what I’m good at, yet I did not study them at the university. If it had existed in my time, then I would have never gone through what I went, and I would have started being Jaymo Ule Msee then.”

Higher education

Manish Sardana, CEO of Craydel Kenya Limited, says that they are a team of entrepreneurs, Career Guidance experts, Counsellors and technologists who are collectively consumed with the mission to transform how higher education is accessed across Sub Saharan Africa.

He says that it is disheartening to see how misguided the youth and misinformed the parents and educators are about the career outcomes of higher education.

“While on the one hand, the higher education decisions of the youth are guided by parental and societal biases, on the other hand, we have a system where the brokers of higher education, in whose hands vulnerable kids and parents rest life-altering higher education decisions, are incentivized to push universities where their financial benefits are tied,” he says.

“The system is broken and flawed in a myriad of ways. But it can be fixed. It can be fixed with world-class technology, knowledge, IP, capital and courage. We will create the largest army of trained career counsellors and empower them with technology and exhaustively researched career resources to guide the youth in designing their destiny.”

At Craydel, they handpick the largest selection of top universities and colleges across Africa and the world. And constantly compel them to raise the standards of their course quality, service delivery, career placements and significantly reduce the cost of higher education.

Working professionals

Craydel, which went live last month, has so far attracted over 50 local and international universities and is still assembling the best industry experts, the masters of their crafts, to create Courses that deliver real-life skills that drive continuous development and growth of students and working professionals.

“And we will do all this one line of code, one counselling session and one Master Course, at a time. It will take us our collective lifetimes, life savings and a few good men with capital and wisdom to move the needle in a meaningful day. And we will not rest until we do.”

They offer one single platform to apply online to top undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and diploma courses and get scholarships at top colleges and universities in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, the US, UK, Canada and Switzerland.

Their platform makes it easy for you to compare and select the best courses that fit your budget and needs, with admission counsellors helping you make the best decision and get success in applications.

We wouldn’t want to continue breeding a spoon-fed generation at the end of the day, would we? Students should be equipped with the right tools and resources to look for answers independently rather than being told what is best for them (something most parents may need to work on as well).

“It is our hope and aspiration that students and parents alike can make more informed decisions conveniently and not miss out on opportunities available to them,” Sardana added.

“We want students to be able to study courses that are aligned with their interests and ultimately be who they want to be in life.”

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