State enlists chiefs and local administrators to achieve 2 million TVET enrolment

The government has enlisted the local administration to help mobilise young people into technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in the Western region, as it pushes to meet a presidential directive to raise national TVET enrolment to 2 million learners by the end of the year.

TVET Principal Secretary Esther Muoria said this while meeting principals from the Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions (KATTI) and National Government Administration Officers (NGAO) from Kakamega, Bungoma, Busia and Vihiga counties at Shamberere National Polytechnic.

Muoria said the presidential directive for the region's 34 training colleges to contribute to the 2 million target was irreversible and must be achieved by all means. She said it was time for the country to embrace technical education if it hoped to reach the status of countries such as Singapore.

Muoria acknowledged the efforts the local administration had made so far in bringing in almost 300,000 trainees countrywide, but said the demand for skilled manpower, within Kenya and abroad, was too large to ignore.

She said Kenya is an industrial country and that, with the affordable housing programme under way, there is a need for technical knowledge. She noted that countries including Dubai have vast construction jobs that need technical experts.

She urged the local administration to scout for and encourage young people to join technical colleges, saying officers were better placed at the grassroots to identify and recruit the youth.

She said the President was creating job opportunities for young Kenyans and had committed to paying their college fees through a funding model under the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS), which would let them access education and training cheaply.

"Western region has 34 TVET colleges and they have the numbers to produce the national deficit of 700,000 trainees, considering that each college needs to recruit just 1,500 new trainees and we shall have surpassed the projected target. I'm sure with their collaboration with NGAO, they will definitely deliver," Muoria said.

She said an industrialised country needs four things: money, machines, markets and manpower, and that manpower was the reason for the meeting, to seek ways of bringing more young people on board.

She said the department was working around the clock to meet its targets and had already reworked the curriculum from theory to practical learning to produce hands-on experts.

Muoria challenged every household to have at least one child enrol in technical training, which she said could lead to opportunities abroad under the Kazi Majuu programme. She said the government had already sent several trainees overseas, where they served for between six months and one and a half years, and that another cohort of 99 trainees was heading to Dubai, with 5,194 more being recruited to travel abroad.

She said the link between TVET marketing from the national level to the grassroots was the way to recruit more trainees.

She said the President was investing in technical education across the country as part of the Bottom-Up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) and asked principals to ensure their colleges are appealing enough to attract learners. She said the government had procured equipment worth Sh13 billion from China to be distributed to training institutions in the 47 counties to attract trainees and boost technical training.

Western Regional Commissioner Allan Macharia called on all government and state machinery to work together to realise the presidential directive. He said NGAO should identify the barriers to enrolment, including negative reports about technical institutions, and turn them into workable solutions.

He also directed the officers to provide security to institutions and protect trainees from illicit brew, drugs and substance abuse, prostitution, illegal gambling and brewing within institutions. The commissioner challenged the local administration to lead in encouraging young people who did not join university to embrace technical training as a way of self-sustenance.