China and Kenya have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at enhancing the state of Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) institutions in the country.
The MOU is focused on imparting advanced skills and delivering state of the art equipment to the institutions while at the same time offering exchange programmes for the students.
They spoke on Friday during the first China-Africa TVET cooperation conference in Nairobi.
This is line with achieving the Big 4 development agenda as the partnership targets to provide requisite skills to five million youth by 2022 as part of addressing the issue of unemployment in the country.
The TVET Director General (DG), Dr. Kipkirui Langat in a speech read on his behalf by Deputy Director, Bernard Shikoli said that the TVET institutions play a critical role in churning out skills that are needed in all sub sectors of the economy.
“The government recognises TVET as a key driver for socio economic transformation, it is known worldwide as the most practical and efficient avenue for acquiring skills for self and gainful employment,” he said.
Langat stated that the cooperation has come at an important time when Kenya is actively looking at more efficient ways to develop more education and training capacity.
He asserted that the collaboration will promote economic and technological changes that will drive the development of vocational education in Kenya.
Langat said that the government has put in place policies and legal framework that will assist in upholding quality and relevance of TVET.
The DG explained that TVET sector is undergoing reforms that will enhance skills of trainees as there is roll out of competence based education in the curriculum in partnership with the industry.
He emphasised that the government is keen on building the trainers’ capacity as 2,000 trainers are to effectively implement competence based education.
“The curriculum formulation and implementation will bring the TVET graduates to the centre of the stage thus increasing their employability and marketability,” he said.
According to Langat, the TVET has experienced an increase in enrollment of the number of trainees from 98,000 in 2017 to 181,000 in 2019.
The DG called for the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) allocation and capitation to be increased in order to meet the increased uptake of trainees in TVET institutions.
The China delegation headed by Chongqing Vocational Institute of Engineering, Vice President, Wu Zaisheng said that they have come to Kenya to cooperate on matters of increasing the levels of skills and capacity in the TVET sector.
The VP continued to say that China has a lot to share with Kenya in their bid to achieve development goals.
“We would like to share our economic development with Kenya and Africa at large,” he added.
By KNA TEAM
