9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

Promoting Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security

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What
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the Youth to
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Chevening
Scholarship

MY CHEVENING JOURNEY, Application

Webinar Part
PART 4: CAREER ESSAY PLAN Two
 Aug 16, 2019  Samuel Ndungu Wairimu  62 Chevening
comments Scholarship
Application
The final essay you will write for your Chevening
Webinar
scholarship application is on your career plan.
KCIC and
The question you will be answering in this essay
Nairobi Farmers’
is; Chevening is looking for individuals who have
Market Host the
a clear post-study career plan. Please outline your
Kiambu County
immediate plans upon returning home and your
Harvest Festival
longer term career goals. You may wish to
Covid-19 and
consider how these relate to what the UK
the evolving face
government is doing in your country. (Minimum
of urban farming
in nairobi
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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

word count: 100 words, maximum word count:

500 words)

FOLLOW US
In this essay you are required to demonstrate
that you have a clear and defined career plan.
Tweets by
This should be the easiest to write because you ‎@Agriculture254

are writing about your future. However, the plan

Agriculture Firs
should be realistic for instance, although it’s in @Agriculture254
Replying to
order to dream of being the president of your
@Agriculture254
country, you should have demonstrated in your Finally AGRA has been
called out. I had already
leadership and networking essays that you have
decided not to attend their
started or at least you are interacting with the annual AGRF that starts
today. You can't keep
people who will help you actualise your dream. promoting 'Corporate
Agriculture' through global
fertilizer and seed
Just like the other essays, it should start with an companies on the pretext
introduction on its own paragraph. Here you of transforming Africa's
smallholder-dominated
should introduce a problem in your country that agriculture.

you seek to solve by following your career plan. Embed View on Twitter
As explained in Studying in the UK essay, looking
at DFID projects can provide a guideline but
shouldn’t limit you. My introduction was as
follows; LIKE OUR
FACEBOOK
According to a 2017 report by Alliance for a PAGE
Green Revolution in Africa, over 70% of
Kenya’s poor and hunger-stricken people
live in rural areas and depend on
agriculture for their livelihoods. Growth in
the agricultural sector has been estimated
to be over ten times more effective in
reducing poverty compared to growth in
other sectors in poor countries. According
to Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations, the sector employs over
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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

40% of Kenya’s population. This could Agriculture

228 likes
increase if more efforts are directed there
and this is why am seeking to build on my
experience with rural poor communities to Like Page
pursue a career in International
Development. This will impart me with Agriculture F
about 3 weeks ago
knowledge and skills to influence policies
Scribbled my rants in t
on poverty reduction through small-scale
weeks ago. You can a
agriculture, rural development and article on my blog
www.agriculture-first.c
research.

The career plan should be structured into short

term, middle term and long term. In each you
should mention the organizations you plan to
work for/ or you plan to start, their objectives, THE-STAR.CO.KE
your role/title and how the skills and training
received will facilitate that. If shortlisted this will
be the backbone of your answers in the following
questions; where do you see yourself in x years? FOLLOW
What’s your immediate/ long term plan after BLOG VIA
studying in the UK? EMAIL

Enter your email

It is important that your community or country
address to follow
should be the focal point where your career plan
this blog and
should revolve. You will be representing your
receive
country as a Chevening scholar. Chevening
notifications of
awards are an important element in Britain’s
new posts by
public diplomacy effort and bring professionals,
email.
who have already displayed outstanding
leadership abilities, to study in the UK. The
Enter your em
objective of Chevening is to support foreign policy
priorities and achieve FCO objectives by creating
positive relationships with future leaders,
influencers and decision makers. In addition,
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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

show how the UK will benefit by awarding you

Follow by
the scholarship and foster relations between the
Email
two countries although this should not be at the
expense of your country. At this juncture, it’s also
important to indicate you know what the UK is
doing in your country.

Follow
My second paragraph covered my short term
career plan (1-2 years although this is not
standard) as it varies from one person to another.

In the short term, I see myself starting a Search … 

community-based organization in Murang’a
County that will endeavour to transform
agriculture into a viable businesses for
rural small-scale farmers. I will achieve this
by seeking partnerships with the county
government and relevant social enterprises
such as Juhudi Kilimo to increase
smallholder farms productivity, enhance
marketing systems and offering business,
safety standards and technical skills
training. These initiatives will turn small-
scale farms to businesses, link them to
regional and global food chains and create
job opportunities.

My medium term career plan was in the third

paragraph and covered 3-5 years after returning
from the UK. As I said previously, this is not
standard and will vary from one individual to the
other.

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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

I plan to serve in the next Murang’a County

Government as a County Executive
Committee Member in charge of Agriculture
and Cooperatives. In this role, I will work
with the County Assembly to improve the
reliability of water supply for irrigation for
small-scale farmers, build more wholesale
market sheds, employ more extension
officers, identify and invest in first-mover
crops and improve on feeder roads to
support agriculture.

My long term career plan covered was more

detailed and was as follows;

In the long-term, with experience and skills

gained in the local government, I plan to
serve as Member of Parliament in the
National Assembly, chairing the Agriculture,
Trade and Cooperatives Committee. In this
role, I will build on my success with the
County Government to work closely with
the Executive arm of government to
spearhead legislation to transform Kenya’s
Agricultural sector to ensure food security
and create more jobs. I will lead
negotiations with United Kingdom
Multinationals such as Marks & Spencer to
increase their fair-trade products in Kenya
and rope in more tea and coffee factories in
their supply chain. In addition, I will
advocate for Diageo to replace imported
grains with local crops such as sorghum
and cassava for their beers. This will
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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

promote trade between Kenya and the

United Kingdom, deepen our relations and
create jobs in the country. By following this
career progression, it will be possible to
make necessary adjustments based on my
experience and the prevailing
circumstances.

As you can note, my career plan had a

progressive pattern and building up on skills and
experience gained in previous roles.

Finally I had a conclusion that summed up

everything as follows;

Generally, training in the United Kingdom will

help me develop networks and collaborations that
will contribute to Kenya’s agenda on food security
while creating jobs especially among rural women
and the youth. This is line with DFID’s initiatives
in Kenya on hunger and prosperity which are also
part of global goals for sustainable development.

This being your last essay, do not submit very

early because you might get stronger examples in
leadership or networking because as a leader you
continue to evolve and grow. At the same time do
not wait till the last day due to unforeseen
circumstances such as power outage, network
problems or computer crashing that can make
you fail in submitting your essays in time.

Finally be authentic, give your story and do not

copy essays of previously selected scholars. The
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9/25/21, 9:58 PM My Chevening Journey, Part 4: Career Essay Plan

readers can detect plagiarism (an academic

offence ) and it makes your interviews in later
stages easier when you own your story. In
addition, use simple grammatically correct English
sentences. Your essays are the opportune
moment to create a first impression and writing
skills are paramount in this. Have people to
proofread your essays for guidance and where
you use abbreviations, make sure you give their
meaning initially.

Webinar recording on Studying in the UK and

Career Plan essays held on 31st August 2021:
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/-
rM9EJLYKtlDFHhRhhm00J9zPcl15cUmNGt12DayA
UwVAgR7cv4PjzTGrlivnrrF13ozc3kchDelqEe3._h-
XhK6jKJstRVNk?
continueMode=true&_x_zm_rtaid=Atf3ySDiTnOzZ
HC2a2VZzQ.1630524586943.5c918b8d6d0e89cf0
3870ac4fbf30678&_x_zm_rhtaid=3

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in

this article are purely mine and do not reflect the
position of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
(FCO) and or its partner organizations.

This brings to an end the Chevening essays

guidelines for now. We will be focusing on
sustainable agriculture and food security till
shortlisting takes place next year when we shall
do an article on preparing for the interview.

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