Tukana County Chief Officer for Education, Social Protection and Sports Pauline Lokuruka has presided over award of certificates and distribution of startup kits to 25 youth who had completed training on plumbing and pipe fitting, welding and fabrication as well as electrical Installation.
The 25 youth who graduated from East Africa Institute of Welding are part of 100 students that had benefited from scholarships from KCB and Tullow Oil in partnership with the County Government. Some 70 of them were trained and graduated at Loyopo training institute in Lodwar.
In her remarks Thursday, Lokuruka said that success of the training would be measured through profitability of the tools to benefiting students and their general impact to the society. She called on the beneficiaries to register with relevant technical associations for licenses of operation.
Lokuruka said the Government was committed to strengthen the sector through enrollment of more students to established County vocational institutes that she noted play a role in creation of employment opportunities through offering of technical courses such as plumbing, artisanal and electrical engineering among others.
County Director for vocational training Stephen Eregae regretted that Turkana students had for long ignored technical courses because of myth that they were for those with low education. He advised the youth to venture into the technical courses to earn a living instead of waiting for white collar jobs.
On her part, Lodwar Kenya Commercial Bank branch manager Christine Lane urged the graduates to utilize the skills learnt and working tools distributed to benefit themselves and the community while County Deputy Director for Vocational training Andrew Losuru said that the department had scaled up efforts to enroll more students to the seven County Vocational Institutes to meet the increasing demand for technical courses.
By Peter Gitonga
