The principal secretary for state department of vocational and technical training Kevit Desai has underscored the role played by national polytechnics in driving the ‘big 4 agenda.’
Addressing the press after presiding over the first graduation ceremony for North Eastern national polytechnic today, Desai said the polytechnics will strive to produce young men and women who have the relevant skills to drive the labour market.
The PS said the government had invested over shs150 million in upgrading the facilities in such institutions as well as branding them.
Desai said the government will continue supporting Technical Vocational Training (TVET) by providing the necessary resources and facilities that they require to produce the human capital that the country requires.
“Our aim as a government is to have these institutions become true centres of excellence in the service of our nation having in mind the ‘big 4 agenda’ as the underpinning strategy to implement in the next 5 years,” he said.
“TVET institutions should aspire to promote not only skills that are required for a new graduates to get employed, but the skills of the entrepreneurial purposes, for only then, will new graduates create jobs for themselves and as entrepreneur for others,” he added.
He said across the world, TVET institutions are a major source of knowledge and innovation by conducting quality and relevant training.
The PS said the government had so far transferred 4,000 teachers from public service commission to TVET in order to address shortages of skilled teaching staff.
Going forward he noted, the government will train an additional 1,000 trainers in the coming few years to meet the growing enrollment in national polytechnics.
He said this had been necessitated by the huge demand in vocational training courses countrywide where enrolment has shot by over 68 percent in the last three years.
National Assembly Majority Leader and Garissa Township MP Aden Duale said he will ensure that budgetary allocation to TVET are not, slashed in supplementary budgets.
Duale was reacting to concerns by the department that its budgetary allocation had been slashed.
The majority leader called on his fellow leaders from the region and clerics to encourage school leavers to join the TVET colleges saying the current enrolment across the region was still low compared to other parts of the country.
“As a region we still have a shortage of skilled man power. I want to appeal to our people to take this opportunity to enroll their children in these technical institutions whose graduates have better chances of securing jobs in the current market,” Duale said.
By Jacob Songok
