Beating the job crisis: How TVETs are shaping Kenya's new entrepreneurs

Vehicle assembling at Kenya Vehicle Manufacturers.[File-Standard]

Back in the day, the promise attached to higher education in Kenya was straightforward, as graduates would find a formal job and build a career. But with  formal employment failing to keep pace with the number of young people leaving schools and colleges, that formula is increasingly being challenged.

Kenya’s national unemployment rate hovers between 5.4 per cent and 5.5 per cent, according to estimates from the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

Data from the Kenya Labour Market Information System (KLMIS) highlights that youth unemployment (ages 15–34) sits at 17.7 per cent. More alarming still, nearly 36 per cent of young Kenyans have the highest unemployment rate of 67 per cent, which means that they are trapped in low-paying, insecure, or part-time positions that do not match their skills.

The primary driver of this crisis is the formal economy's inability to create jobs. Over one million tertiary graduates and school leavers enter the market annually, vastly outpacing formal vacancies. To this end, nearly 80 per cent of Kenya’s workforce is absorbed by the informal sector, where job security and steady incomes are virtually non-existent.

This has seen many youths realigning their focus in life before graduating. Take 28-year-old James Oyori Mecha, who decided that the answer was not another job application but starting a business.

Mecha, who trained as a plumber at Morako Vocational Training Centre (VTC) in Nyamira County, graduated two months ago. Instead of joining the growing queue of young Kenyans searching for formal employment, he is preparing to register his own company and create work for himself and others.

Two months after graduating, he is already in the process of registering his own company, which he says will be key in his pursuit of a livelihood.

“I am in the process of registering my own company and after all is completed, I will recruit my few other colleagues who will help me in doing various contracts I will be securing under the company,” Mecha says.

 According to Mecha, his own company is in the business of offering logistics services as well as selling imported inputs and appliances that are aligned to his profession.

“While securing tenders for various plumbing jobs, I will also be having an enterprise for selling goods associated with my job. If I find a client wanting me to fix pipes, I can sell the same pipes to them before offering to also fix for them. That is the nature of undertakings that can prosper me as a plumber,” he says.

For Margaret Nyang’ate Mose, who graduated with a certificate in tailoring from Ekerubo VTC in Nyamira North, her dream of becoming a dressmaker climaxed two months after her graduation when the County Department of Education rewarded her with a sewing machine for her hard work.

“I have the skill, and my main problem of starting up my own employment is now solved with a new sewing machine which I will start work with,” Nyang’ate said after being handed the machine by Nyamira Governor Amos Nyaribo.

Two years ago, the County Government started what it termed a scholarship opportunity for entrants of county-sponsored polytechnics in collaboration with the Kenya Commercial Bank.

Through the program, youths admitted to polytechnics are given either partial or full scholarships depending on their financial needs and vulnerability.

The initiative has increased enrolment in the polytechnics, with numbers growing from around 1,000 in 2023 to about 3,000 in 2026.

According to the County Chief, for the Country to have a wholesome approach in tackling unemployment, there is need for stakeholders in the sector to review courses offered in both National and County polytechnics so as to conform with market demands.

“Unemployment is a major problem in the country and in such a manner, stakeholders need to come together and review the various courses offered with a view to aligning them with current demands in the job market,” Nyaribo says.

Such initiatives are aimed at making young people job creators instead of making them reliant on formal jobs.

“The Government of China reviewed 12,000 courses offered in various tertiary learning institutions and scrapped about 10,000 of them, creating new ones that conform to market demands. That is what we need to implement in Kenya for us to be assured that our young people will have a good future even without landing formal jobs,” he said.

In Kenya, the funds allocated to the education sector in the 2026/27 financial year were tailor-made, targeting key areas across the education system, with TVET institutions getting Sh58.5 billion to strengthen technical and vocational training, and Sh1.3 billion set aside for science, research, and innovation programmes.

To enhance service delivery, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) got Sh424 billion for teachers' salaries and related expenses, and higher education allocated Sh163.9 billion for university grants and scholarships.

 According to the county’s Education Executive Emily Ongaga, the targeted approach of mentoring learners to embrace self-employment ventures after skills training is an assured way of enabling economic growth of the country.

The county depends heavily on the informal sector, which is mainly run by skilled people graduating from VTCs. That is why we are seeing great positivity going by the growing enrollment in our training centres,” Ms Ongaga said.