Continued failure by school leavers in Mbeere sub counties in Embu County to join courses in technical institutions could in future jeopardise the availability and distribution of skilled technical manpower in the labour market.
This comes at a time when technical skills remain a major requirement for those seeking to work in various sites and industries locally and abroad.
Technical courses had also gained popularity because the government and other education funds offered scholarships and loans for those who could not afford to pay the required fee.
According to Mbeere South former MP Geoffrey King’ang’i continued avoidance of the TVET courses could mean that contractors undertaking projects in the region will be forced to import skilled manpower hence losing finances to other regions.
In the wake of this, the former MP is asking school leavers to enrol for the courses even when they were not keen to use the gained skills immediately but as an investment for the future because demand for the skills would continue to expand.
“Unless the young school leavers pursue technical skills the constituency and Embu County will continue to experience shortages in skilled people required in various industries which are undergoing expansion,” said King’ang’i.
Talking to the Education News in Gachoka area in Embu County recently, the former MP noted that a huge number of training spaces available in TVET institutions including the Jeremiah Nyagah National Polytechnic were dominated by trainees from other counties.
Continued occupation of the training spaces by people from outside Embu meant that qualified school leavers had given the training opportunities a clear berth, a situation which meant the region would continue to be starved of required technical workforce.
The former MP encouraged the young people to not always concentrate with Muguka farming and commerce noting that today technical skills training remained flexible with some short courses requiring fees of as low as KSh5000.
Education, the former MP warned does not end after primary or secondary school completion especially in the wake of expanding requirement for technical skills local and abroad where thousands of skilled Kenyan are being hired to work in well-paying vocations by diaspora recruiters.
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Some young people continue to hold the work of technical graduates as merely manual and reminded them that today industries had made huge improvements in their operations automating most of the production units meaning manual work would soon be reduced to minimum.
He warned that although the Muguka and Miraa farming remained lucrative, it should be left to adults because when young people ventured into the areas they risked falling into the abuse of the crop forcing them to abandon interest in higher education.
King’ang’i noted that young people lamented that there were no jobs yet they could not access the openings available without basic technical skills mostly gained from TVET institutions where even the government offered attractive scholarships and loans for those enrolling.
Openings in income generating areas for those with technical skills, King’ang’i said were widespread in areas such a gadget repairs, carpentry and joinery, masonry and other sectors where only short courses were required.
The former legislator also asked leaders in Mbeere South to unite and launch campaigns to market training spaces in the technical intuitions so as to attract local youth into courses adding that presently the leaderships appeared to have abandoned the youth to waste in Muguka farming.
He asked the current MP to work with the local leaders to ensure that special scholarships were started in the technical institutes for local school leavers and NG-CDF should allocate capitation funds for the youth to attain skills.
By Robert Nyagah
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