Education stakeholders in Turkana County have urged youths and eligible persons in the county to enrol in Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions to acquire technical skills.
Turkana Deputy Governor John Erus has launched a recruitment drive to encourage eligible persons and youths to enrol in courses in TVETs.
Speaking at the Lodwar Youth Vocational Centre, the DG said they are collaborating with the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar and Zizi Afrique to encourage youths to enrol in the institutions to get skills for livelihood.
“There’s an increased number of young people who are unemployed and people struggling to get certification in skills they possess.
One of our agendas is to revitalise education; we are looking for skills capacity available within our young people to use as an opportunity for wealth creation,” Erus said.
He said Turkana has eight TVETs, which are organised to tap the potential that exists in Turkana County.
Erus urged the youths to tap into the transformation and prepare for the upcoming opportunities by taking up TVET courses.
He appreciated the input of the Diocese of Lodwar, Zizi Afrique, and the State Department of TVET in initiating the rebranding agenda.
Renaldah Mboje, Programme Manager of Zizi Afrique, said they are working with 46 TVETs across the country and doing various research on education.
Mboje said they found out that there are many TVET institutions with low enrollment of youths.
She said they are working together with the Ministry of Education on a project called rebranding TVETs to make it possible for young people to see the value and enrol to get the skills.
Mboje called on the county government of Turkana to support the youths to ensure the opportunity given does not go to waste.
Wilson Losike, secretary of education of the Catholic Diocese of Lodwar, said they are working with the county government and Zizi Afrique to have high enrollment in TVET institutions.
“How are we going to empower our youths? The only thing is to urge them to join TVET institutions to get skills that help them earn a living,” Losike said.
He said there’s a need for youths to acquire skills to benefit from incoming projects that include the Lapsset project, A1 road construction, and oil and gas exploration.
By Peter Gitonga
