By Cally Imbayi
Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is the viable option and greatest enabler for implementing competency based education training and promoting employment.
It also has the greatest capacity to boost the National Government’s Big Four Agenda which include food security, affordable housing, manufacturing and affordable healthcare TVET Principal Secretary Dr. Kevit Desai has said.
The PS said this when he visited Shamberere Technical Training Institute in Malava Constituency in Kakamega County during the competency based education training capacity building stakeholders forum that brought together the church, local government, industries, jua kali sector, farmers, primary and secondary schools .
He added that in order for the country to attain Vision 2030 and the Big Four Agenda, TVET should fully be implemented and specifically competency based education training.
“We brought all stakeholders together to explain the relevance of TVET and how TVET today requires their involvement in informing the kind of standards and the outcomes of work that they require; not necessarily just technical skills; it also informs and accommodates aspects of values, life skills, curiosity skills, capacities for communication skills and technical skills.
“So it’s a very well rounded educational system and one of the systems that the Ministry of Education is promoting throughout its educational structures from primary, TVET, and University education”, the PS stated.
The PS lauded Shambere TTI for being one of the best examples of the success stories with regard to TVET, adding that the institution provides solutions to industries which rely on it to develop parts of their machinery and solve problems of manufacturing.
Shamberere TTI has the best technical equipment in the country. He appealed to parents to enrol their children in Constituency TVET institutions.
“I’m glad to learn that many students who graduate from this institution are absorbed into employment and many others go into developing their own businesses”, remarked Desai.
Desai emphasized that competency based education curriculum is demand driven, flexible and anchored on occupational standards which are international in nature and able to develop technical training institutes to deliver training.
TVET is one of the systems that the Ministry of Education is promoting throughout its educational structures from Primary, Secondary, TVET and university level.
The PS was hosted by Marren Omondi, the Principal Shamberere Technical Training Institute who said all the stakeholders had agreed to work together to improve TVET because it is through TVET that many lives will be changed towards improvement of the counties and the nation as a whole.
“My appeal is to the community and Kenyans at large to support TVET and encourage as many students to enroll in the various TVET institutions around the country”, the Principal appealed.
