By Azael Masese
The Government is in the process of establishing centres of excellence in some of the country’s Technical Training Institutes (TTIs).
Under the arrangement, resources would be allocated to make a particular institute a stand out in a given discipline such as mechanical engineering.
State Department of Vocational and Technical Training, Ministry of Education, Permanent Secretary, Dr Kevit Desai (Pictured) said the approach would factor in the main economic mainstay around a given institute.
“This is an ongoing initiative that seeks to encourage competence based education and training and there would be structures to promote the entire skills ecosystem,” he said.
It would also promote technical institutes that are sector and skilled based to enable them focus on their strengths.
The PS said this would also enhance professional development of those who seek further studies starting from artisans to craftsmen, to technicians and technologists.
He said this on the sidelines of a training and capacity building workshop targeting managers of the country’s vocational institutes at the Kenya Education Management Institute (KEMI).
The centres would also promote community innovation projects as well as the development of other institutions within the country.
“These would be national projects in order to among other roles upgrade the capacity in terms of quality and relevance of all TTI and vocational institutions,” said the PS.
Besides, they would be responsible for building skills and capacities but promote different sources of income based on continuous professional development.
If a professional would like to further the skills, they would go to these institutions to further develop their skills.
Consequently, this would advance innovation and productivity gains made in a particular field in a given institute.
“The ecosystem would promote further development and be responsive and dynamic within the changes in the productive and social sectors,” he said.
The sector could be one of the key focus areas such as the Big Four on manufacturing and sector based on food and beverage for areas of our sector of the economy,” he said.
While addressing heads of the country’s vocational training institutes, Dr Desai said the skill based approach could focus on particular skills like welding, electrical engineering and chemical engineering.
Kabete TTI would for example be a centre of excellence in mechanical engineering and megatronics while North Eastern National Polytechnic would focus on automotive technology.
The low hanging concept would also see Mombasa TTI champion the hospitality industry and other areas related to it.
Various development partners are involved such as World Bank, Canadian and Germany. The Germany government will be involved in Kiambu TTI, Thika TTI and Nairobi TTI.
Areas of interest include manufacturing, food processing and construction. Nairobi TTI has for example been identified to become a centre of excellence in food technology.
In this concept, students who seek admission in the college receive a wealth of experience on value addition thus enabling them to create businesses such as yoghurt processing.
