Practical training and partnerships a roadmap to wealth creation

Dr Felistas Wangui, a coach, addresses apprentices during the opening of the second cohort Graduate Enterprise Academy Boot camp

African countries can catch up with the Asian Tigers if tertiary training is more practical-oriented and integrates mentorship. This is according to Mount Kenya University founder Dr Simon Gicharu, who says there is too much theory and “copy-cat” approach in the education system in Africa.

The four Asian Tigers – Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan – transformed from backwater countries to highly developed societies by reforming their education model. More focus was placed on technology and an export-oriented manufacturing.

“Institutionalisation of practical oriented teaching and learning in schools and universities should be our guide towards economic prosperity and job creation,” says Dr Gicharu.

He explains that his experiences led him to establish the Mount Kenya University Graduate Enterprise Academy, a post-graduate incubation and mentorship lab meant to transform would-be job-seekers into job creators.

The lab is backed by a Ksh40 million war chest that is expected to create hundreds of jobs in the next five years. Dr Gicharu says technical training is a viable solution in stemming the unemployment tide.

“As training institutions, we should ensure up to 85 per cent of teaching and learning is practical oriented. Theoretical training leads to production of ‘copy-cat’ engineers, teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, among others.”

Dr Gicharu poses: “Why can’t we have policies that allow students to get evaluated on their contributions to the industry? Such a policy would add value to both the teaching and to partnering organizations.”

No effort spared in entrenching quality at MKU

Quality has been at the heart of Mount Kenya University’s operations right from the start, stretching back to the days of its precursor. Thika Institute of Technology, the university’s forerunner, benchmarked for quality with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and technology (JKUAT) and Uganda’s Gulu University.

MKU offered programmes in collaboration with the two universities. By then, quality assurance at the institution was only by benchmarking with the two universities.

“This helped raise MKU’s stature to a level where in 2008, it could run own programmes,” says Prof Peter Wanderi, Director, Quality Assurance, Linkages and Partnerships.

He continues: “This paved the way for MKU to be granted a Letter of Interim Authority (LIA) in 2008. The university then put in place structures on quality assurance and became ISO 9001:2008 certified in 2012. All its teaching and management activities were certified.”

Every year, the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) undertakes two external audits on the university’s processes and activities. Likewise, the university’s 300 ISO internal auditors carry out quality audits within the institution. Of this number, 40 had their training enhanced and became Lead Auditors. They are distributed throughout all the university’s campuses. All quality assurance operations are coordinated from the Thika main campus.

Students, too, participate in the quality assurance exercise. Every semester before they receive their exam cards, they are required to appraise their lecturers and fill the evaluation form online. The appraisal results are then sent to management.

The Quality Assurance Directorate also carries out surveys on customer satisfaction. It provides a questionnaire that the students and other stakeholders fill to indicate their levels of satisfaction with the services they receive at MKU. The results are passed on to management to take corrective actions.

MKU’s quality assurance journey is set to move to another level as the university prepares for transition to ISO 9001:2015 on the advice of KEBS.

“The university is working towards attaining this standard by 2017, although we have until March 2018 to do that,” says Prof Wanderi. “We were recertified early this year as we work towards ISO 9001:2015.”