TVETs enrollment hits 320,000 as CS Machogu eyes 'greener jobs'

Students enrollment in Technical and Vocational Education and Training institutions has increased from 92,000 in 2018 to 320,000 this year following government reforms.

Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu said TVETs reforms are meant to align training with the Bottom-up Economic Transformation Agenda (BETA) to enable youth acquire skills for ‘green jobs’ and mitigate climate change.

Prof Machogu said this in a speech read on his behalf by TVETs Principal Secretary Esther Muoria during the TVET principals’ capacity building workshop at Pride Inn hotel in Mombasa on Monday.

“Following the release of the report by the Presidential Working Party on Education Reforms (PWPER), this capacity building workshop could not have come at a better time,” said Machogu.

The CS asked principals to have a critical review of the findings contained in the report and come up with practical ways of ensuring youth get skills and become creative.

“The workshop is a continuation of an important journey in the history of capacity building. A journey that will ultimately lead to effective and efficient implementation of the Competence Based Education and training (CBET),” he said.

Machogu said the training being offered in the institutions will help realise a quality and vibrant TVET system which will contribute to social development.

“This workshop whose theme is, ‘Leadership Development and Adaptation to Change in TVET,’ is expected to contribute, enhance knowledge and understanding of rapidly changing occupation, technologies, climate change and greening of the economy,” he said. He noted that since the presidential education report touched on issues they had raised, TVETs will now help in re-skilling, upskilling and have a lifelong learning to improve youth lives.

Dr Muoria announced that the Ministry of Education will introduce a mind-change curriculum in schools and training institutions for youth to have positive thinking about their lives. She said the curriculum will help youth to develop a culture of not surrendering whenever they fail in what they set out to do.

The PS told the principals to guide the new students how to apply for loans from the Higher Education Loans Board after being placed in their colleges by the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service because their work was now distinct.

She urged the principals to acquaint themselves with the reforms recommended by the president’s team. Participants complained that most students admitted to colleges were having challenges with the new funding system.