Technical and Vocational Education Training Principal Secretary (PS) Dr Esther Thaara has directed all institutions under her docket to align their course outlines with the job market demand to ease absorption of graduates.
Dr Thaara directed all Technical and Vocational Education Training institutes in the country to link up with the key industries players to produce fully-skilled graduands.
Speaking during the fifth graduation ceremony at Meru National Polytechnic where 5,054 learners were awarded various certificates, the PS said this was the only way to ensure that the training given to learners is absolute.
“We want to make sure we allow trainees to graduate when we know where they are going because it is not enough to just train them but it is important that we know where they are going after training,” said Dr Thaara.
She said the ministry of education is also ensuring the dual TVET is fully implemented where 50 percent of the learners’ time will be spent in industry.
“This is because the Kenya Kwanza Government wants to ensure that we do an end-to-end job which means that we train our graduands with an end in mind,” said Dr Thaara.
She added: “I want to be very grateful to GIZ from Germany. As a state department we have decided that we are going to go by the German training model because Germany got to where they are because of imparting their youth with absolute skills.”
She said the Country through the ministry of education and specifically the state department for TVET has taken a stand to take up the German model of skills training to ensure youth are well trained and skilled as a way of industrialising the country.
“We want to industrialise this country and industrialists will only come to Kenya when they know that we have pools of skilled youth,” said Dr Thaara adding that this will also address the issue of youth unemployment by exporting labour to countries in need.
The state department, she added, has ensured that the implementation of Curriculum Based Education Training (CBET) takes root into “our institutions where trainees will be instilled with necessary skills that ensure that they thrive in the economy.”
“In support of the curriculum, the government has continued to recruit trainers and the last 2000 that we interviewed are waiting for the public service commission to finish their work so that we can post them into our institutions,” said Dr Thaara.
Meru National Polytechnic Chief Principal Mutembei Kigige congratulated the graduands as well as the parents, sponsors and guardians for the immense support throughout the graduands’ training process.
He said as they celebrate TVET at 100 years, they can also proudly say that the polytechnic is the home of research and innovations.
“We have deliberately supported our trainees, sponsored, and identified talents in solving societal problems hence this year alone we have come up with many innovations like solar green preservative machines, manufacture of Novel organic fertilizer, automated train and Transformer vandalism protector,” said Mr Kigige.
He said the institution takes the area of innovation with the seriousness it deserves and any students who have ideas are usually supported with the resources they require to come up with the innovation and develop them to the level of patenting.
“We are happy the government as well as other players have come up to help in absorbing them for further training,” said Mr Kigige.
He said the 100th anniversary of TVET institutions marks a century of transforming lives, empowering communities, and driving economic development through skill-based education.
“Our institution has recently been accredited as a qualification awarding institution, authorised to create curricula, impart knowledge and conduct assessments. This prestigious status is a testament to our unwavering commitment to academic excellence and innovation in technical and vocational education and training,” said Mr Kigige.
By Dickson Mwiti
