Who is a Human Resources Officer?
A human resources officer is a professional with qualifications inhuman resource management or closely related field. Human Resource Management commonly abbreviated as “HRM” describes any formal systems developed for the management of people within a given organization with a sole objective of maximizing employee performance.

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The role of Human resources management involves; staffing (employee recruitment), training, employee benefits and compensation, developing and designing employee work descriptions among other related activities. Typically, human resources officers will oversee the recruiting process, interviews as well as hiring of new staff, consulting with top executives on human resource strategic planning and acting as a link between an organization’s employees and its top management.

What is human resources officer’s work environment?
Human resources officers generally work in offices and may sometimes travel to attend professional meetings or to recruit employees.

What are some human resources officer’s career opportunities?
Human resource officers are employed by Government, academia, the private sector and Non-Governmental Organizations among other areas.

Typical areas of employment include; human resources management departments in both public and private sectors. Some areas of employment include; Government ministries and parastatals, construction firms, manufacturing industries, healthcare providers, banking institutions, communication firms, education institutions, engineering companies, agricultural sectors among others. Graduates can also start their own HR consulting businesses.

How to become a human resources officer

 High school subject selection
To pursue a career as a human resources officer, a good performance in the following cluster subjects is required.

1. Subject 1: ENG/KIS,
2. Subject 2: MAT A / MAT B
3. Subject 3:any GROUP II or any GROUP III,
4. Subject 4:a GROUP II or a GROUP III or any GROUP IV or any GROUP V

In addition, candidates must score at least C (Plain) in MAT A / MAT B, (Source; JAB/ Kuccps).

Education and Training Routes
If you work hard and score good grades in the above subject’s combination with an overall, KCSE mean grade C+ (plus) and above, you can pursue this career directly in the university (academic route).

However, if you do not qualify for direct university admission for this career option, you can still pursue it through a different route (technical route). Under the technical route, you can pursue a diploma course that can help or enable you further your education within human resource management field.

So what course(s) can you pursue in either route

Academic route
Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Management or similar course(s)

Technical route
An approved diploma in a relevant discipline

Some important skills to have

1. Interpersonal skills
2. Communication skills
3. Presentation skills
4. Teamwork skills
5. Decision making skills
6. Leadership skills
7. Organization skills
8. Problem solving skills among others

How to Join College and or university
There are two ways you can follow to join training institution(s) in pursuit of your career of choice. The majority way is applying through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (Kuccps). This is a state owned agency that admits/ places government sponsored students to colleges and universities. One of the advantages of applying through Kuccps is that, upon successful placement, you will pay subsidized fee as a government sponsored student.

To be placed through Kuccps you must have attained a certain pass mark required for various education levels for such as degrees, diplomas, certificates among others. For more details on placement criteria, visit Kuccps website. The second approach is applying directly to training institution of your choice. Students who opt to apply this way do not get government fee subsidy and are therefore self-sponsored.

How to fund your post-secondary education.
If you are a needy student, upon application, you can get education loan from Higher Education Loans Board (HELB), a state owned institution that gives education loans to students joining technical colleges and universities. You can also access education bursaries from your local Member of Parliament (MP) or the County Government among other sources.