- PS Muoria has outlined a new industry-centred approach to TVET, summarised as “training from industry, with industry, for industry.”
- Kenya has trained over 11,600 TVET trainers, developed about 300 modularised curricula, and enrolled more than 15,000 learners in dual training since the policy’s approval in January 2025.
- The reforms have drawn international support, including about €28 million from Finland, Germany and South Korea, to produce graduates capable of both employment and entrepreneurship.
Speaking at the three-day International TVET Conference 2026 in Nairobi, Principal Secretary for the State Department for TVET Dr Esther Thaara Muoria delivered a message that should force Kenya to rethink what it expects from technical and vocational education. The Government, she said, is moving beyond classroom-based training by bringing industry closer to TVET institutions and giving learners greater exposure to real equipment and production environments. “This is about bringing industry into our institutions so that our learners train in environments that reflect the realities of the workplace,” Muoria said.
Her central proposition is captured in a straightforward formula: “training from industry, with industry, for industry.” It is a deceptively simple statement, but it goes to the heart of one of Kenya’s most persistent education and employment challenges. For too long, the success of training has been associated primarily with completion and certification, yet the real test of a technical qualification begins after graduation. Can the graduate actually do the job? A young person may leave college with a certificate in automotive engineering, electrical installation, agriculture, construction, apparel or ICT, but if the graduate has never worked with the equipment, production systems, standards and pressures of the real workplace, the transition from college to employment can be difficult. Muoria’s industry-centred approach attempts to close that gap, requiring employers to become active participants in determining the skills that learners acquire, including greater involvement in curriculum development, practical training, innovation, assessment, workplace exposure and production.
Kenya already has a substantial platform on which to build. The country has 33 national polytechnics and 217 technical and vocational colleges. More than 11,600 trainers have been trained in competency-based training, while about 300 modularised curricula have been developed or reviewed. The Government has also incorporated green competencies into 86 curricula and engaged more than 2,500 companies with TVET institutions. These are significant developments, but numbers alone will not make TVET successful; the quality of the connection between training institutions and the economy will.
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Dual Training and Hands-On Workshops Could Change the Game
One of the most promising elements of the reforms is dual training, which combines institutional learning with workplace training. More than 15,000 young people have benefited from the model, while the Dual Training Policy was approved in January 2025. A learner who spends part of the training period inside an institution and another part in an actual workplace gains something a classroom cannot completely provide: experience, learning how employers operate, how customers behave, how deadlines work, how quality is measured and how mistakes carry consequences. Employers, meanwhile, get an opportunity to identify talented young people before they graduate, creating a natural pipeline from training to apprenticeship, apprenticeship to employment, and employment to productivity.
The Government’s plan to establish production and service facilities within TVET institutions is therefore particularly important, with agriculture, apparel manufacturing and automotive repair among the areas identified for greater hands-on training. A technical institution should ideally have functioning workshops, farms, laboratories, garages, production units and service centres where appropriate, exposing students to the same tools, technologies and standards they will meet outside college. The institution can even become a productive enterprise, allowing learners to gain practical experience while generating income and solving community problems, transforming TVET from a place where young people learn about work into a place where they learn through work.
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Industry Partnerships Must Build Lasting Local Capacity
The economy is changing rapidly, with electric mobility, renewable energy, automation, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, digital services and climate-smart agriculture creating new skills requirements. Training institutions cannot afford to wait until industries complain that graduates lack relevant skills; employers should be involved early enough to identify emerging occupations and technologies, and curricula must evolve with the economy. Trainers must also remain current, since modern equipment is of limited value if instructors have not been adequately exposed to the technologies they are expected to teach.
The international partnerships supporting Kenya’s TVET transformation need to produce lasting local capacity. Finland, Germany and South Korea have committed about €28 million to Kenya’s TVET sector, while KOICA is providing additional support in infrastructure, equipment and technical expertise. The objective should be bigger than acquiring equipment; Kenya should develop trainers who can use and maintain that equipment, institutions that can sustain the programmes, and graduates who can deploy the skills productively.
TVET Must Also Produce Entrepreneurs
Kenya does not have enough formal jobs to employ every young person graduating from colleges and universities. TVET must therefore prepare learners not only to become employees but also to become employers. A skilled mechanic should be capable of establishing a modern garage. An agricultural trainee should understand both production and agribusiness. An apparel graduate should know how to turn technical skills into a viable enterprise. Technical competence should be accompanied by entrepreneurship, financial literacy, digital skills and an understanding of markets, so that the ultimate graduate can say: “I can find a job, but I can also create one.”
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Muoria’s speech provides an opportunity to redefine the national conversation around TVET. The question should no longer be how many students Kenya can train, but how many graduates the economy can confidently absorb because they possess relevant, practical and adaptable skills. The success of TVET should therefore be judged beyond enrolment figures, examinations and certificates, and measured instead by employment, enterprise creation, productivity, innovation and the confidence of employers in hiring graduates straight from training institutions. Kenya has invested heavily in expanding access to technical and vocational education; the next frontier is ensuring that access translates into competence, dignity and livelihoods. If the industry-centred model succeeds, TVET could become one of Kenya’s strongest engines for youth employment and economic transformation. But the principle must remain clear: a TVET graduate should not leave college merely knowing what a job is. The graduate should be ready to do it.
By Hillary Muhalya
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