The Ministry of Education through the department of Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVET) has formed a special unit to reach out to industry to ensure that all TVET trainings are “about industry, in industry and for industry.”
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Education State Department for TVET, Dr. Esther Muoria, urged the institutions to forge partnerships with industry players with the motive of identifying the existing market gaps that TVET institutions should fill through competent training to meet the market demand.
According to the PS the government priorities have shifted from just educating and training to skilling “our youth.”
She was speaking during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Kenya Coast National Polytechnic and Isuzu East Africa in Mombasa where she appealed to the industry players to help TVET institutions in identifying the niche areas “where we need to tailor our focus in skill development.”
“I do not think that it is important anymore for one to have a Diploma in Automotive Engineering. That is too wide and I am very uncomfortable with that. This is why we are asking the industry players like Isuzu because you are the people with the vehicle, to help us identify the niche areas. In which area can I train and be very good in,” Muoria stated.
With the current trend, the Principal Secretary advised that the market demands for people who know something and not necessarily who have the certificates in something.
“My experience in the short time is that it is no longer important to hold so many certificates like I have from the Universities. It’s not enough, we need people who can be able to do something and be able to work on something, so that they can earn a living,” the PS said while urging the industry players to identify foreign institutions which can partner with local institution with the motive of duo-certifying local graduates to make them marketable internationally.
“I would want us to scale up the MOU you have just signed so that we can identify some institutions in Japan where we can partner and train our students in niche areas so that we are not talking of students who are just trained locally. We need to scale up to a situation where we can duo-certify our students between ourselves and Japan. We cannot afford to be local anymore. We want to have a situation that can have a certificate that is recognized globally,” the PS noted.
Isuzu East African Managing Director Rita Kavashe disclosed that due to changing technology the company is usually forced to train students who join the job market for two years.
“We want to reduce the number of years. That is possible through such a kind of partnership and we are going to make sure that we are going to collaborate, provide internships and even job opportunities,” Rita said.
Every year, she said millions of students globally join the job market with an unclear path to follow.
Coupled with the strained economy and the macro environment, she said many continue to lose jobs adding that in Kenya, according to the World Bank data; 5.7 per cent of the labor force was out of work in 2021.
“In partnership with institutions across the country, we will continue to create a seamless transition into the job market. We chose to partner with the Kenya National Coast Polytechnic because of your values of innovation, professionalism, diversity initiatives and customer focus which align with what we value at Isuzu EA,” she said.
By Hilton Mwabili
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