By Michael Oduor
Coast Institute of Technology (CIT) Principal Stephen Ngome has urged Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions to promote self-employment as a way to curb the increasing unemployment among the youth through talent promotion.
He was speaking during the closing of the regional drama festival that took place at the institution bringing together TVET institutions in the Coast region.
Ngome noted that there are qualified tutors for drama in the region and have the capability to manage such events.
“Most of the adjudicators here are from the Coast and we know they have the capability to hold these competitions here which apart from promoting diversity, will also benefit our students by showcasing their talents,” he said.
Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions (KATTI) Coast region Deputy Chair and Principal at Kaloleni Technical and Vocational College (TVC) Prisca Munyao encouraged women and youth to enroll for TVET programmes to acquire skills and boost their economic growth.
“We are here to say TVETs work because we have seen what it can do. We are products of TVETs. Therefore, I urge youth and mostly women to join them to gain skills and technical know-how so as to assist their communities,” said Munyao.
She urged the industries to continue working closely with TVETs in making linkages as well as providing attachment opportunities to the TVET students.
The Principal called upon the county and national government to facilitate the construction of auditoriums where students can train and rehearse their plays.
“We need a good auditorium where students can practice comfortably. At the moment, our hall has a capacity of 100 people,” said Ngome.
Victor Makau, a technical trainer at CIT reiterated the need to have collaborations with TVET stakeholders to host such competitions from where talents can be identified, nurtured and connected to promoters.
“Other than just showing their talents, we need to come up with a program that can identify these talents and commercialize them so they can earn a livelihood from that,” said Makau.
