Background of VTCs or Youth Polytechnics
The National Council of Churches of Kenya initiated the Vocational Training Centres originally known as Village polytechnics, in 1968. In 1971 the Government introduced the concept of supporting Vocational Training Centres set up by local communities and churches. This was a strategy to ensure that school leavers had access to technical, entrepreneurial, and business skills which would lead them into income-generating activities and improve the standards of communities in which they live, and stem rural-urban migration.
Since the promulgation of the new Kenyan Constitution 2010, TVET Training was decentralized and some TVET training functions devolved to the counties. The national government remained running these TVET training Institutions; Technical Universities, National Polytechnics, Technical Institutes, and Institutes of Technology all under the Directorate of TVET in the Ministry of Education.
The counties were charged with managing Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) or Village polytechnics and home craft centres as indicated in Schedule 4 of the constitution of Kenya.
Initially, the VTCs were under the Ministry of Culture and Social Services, then they were moved to the Ministry of Technical Training and Applied Technology, before moving to the Ministry of Labour and Human Resource Development.
Until recently, they were administered by the Directorate of Industrial Training, but in the provinces and districts, they were under the Department of Small and Micro Enterprises. This confusion negatively impacted the planning, management, and promotion of VTCs.
Unfortunately, the emerging trend is that most VTCs are ill-prepared for training as their physical facilities are run down and equipment is inadequate, obsolete, or not working. This has resulted in a mismatch between training programmes offered by the VTCs and the demands of the labour market; hence many VTCs graduates cannot find employment in the formal sector of the economy because they lack adequate, relevant skills, or be self-employed because they lack entrepreneurial skills.
The VTC sector in Kenya has experienced moderate growth over the last 40 years. The sector continues to produce the needed middle-level human resource for the national economy. Vision 2030 has however placed special demands on TVET as the leading engine that the economy must essentially rely upon to produce adequate levels of the middle-level manpower needed to drive the economy towards the attainment of the vision. Moreover, the Constitution of Kenya 2010 has also created demands that require the technical and vocational education and training sector to develop policies and strategies to facilitate faster economic growth.
At the current rate of population growth, it is estimated that by 2030, Kenya will be having a population of 60 million. At this point then, for industrial take-off, the country should be having some 30,000 engineers and engineering technologists. This means that then the economy will require at least 7,500 engineers, 22,500 engineering technologists, 90,000 engineering technicians, and 450,000 tradespersons (i.e., a combined workforce of artisans and craftsperson).
The VTC sector and TVET training, in general, is an indispensable tool in driving the industrialization and job creation aspirations of the counties and country, this calls for heavy investments in the sector both in funds and human resources by the county governments.
Current Trends in The VTC Sector In The Counties
Currently there is a very limited financial investment, management, support, and presence of most county governments in the VTC sector as compared to other sectors of education and training for example ECDE sector and Bursary Programmes. This has been compounded by a lack of clear VTC policy that was manifested in the frequent changes of the VTC’s parent ministries before devolution.
Currently, the constitution of Kenya 2010 has mandated the county government to take over management of this sector as a fully devolved function, there is a big and urgent need for the county government to develop policy guidelines and capacity to build existing staff to effectively coordinate the sector.
Most of VTCs clients can’t afford fees and charging fees in our VTCs for tuition support has been an impediment to most prospective trainees, there must therefore be a concerted effort to make VTC training affordable by increasing tuition support and grants to VTC. Our VTCs haven’t been supported by the national SAGAs like HELB to access educational support through loans like the counterparts in mainstream TVET institutions managed by the National Government, also our VTCs trainees haven’t been supported by CDF grants and bursaries, mainly due to the notion that the National Government cannot support programmes being supported by the County Governments, essentially our VTCs trainees have been made like lesser children who only belongs to county governments and not the Kenyan Nation, whereas considering that the county government has been putting a lot of resources in offering bursary support to secondary schools students and tertiary students most often leaving out trainees in our VTCs.
TVET training in Kenya is a philosophy that is geared towards equipping trainees with practical skills and entrepreneurship skills and towards achieving the country’s aspirations under the Vision 2030 paradigm, but in Kenya this seems to be a novelty, disregarding the general problems bedevilling the TVET sector I want to critically look at the inherent teething problems plaguing VTCs.
Counties are charged with running VTCs including the hiring of instructors, the provision of physical infrastructures like classrooms, offices, workshops and equipment, policy development, formation of VTC boards of management, providing tuition support and grants etc.
VTCs have long suffered from neglect and inadequate funding, and a closer look at these institutions betrays a big gap in training and skills acquisition. As one person once remarked
” A student entering these institutions and one leaving the institution after two or three years are all the same, both have no skills”.
Challenges Grappling VTCs In the Counties
Most counties don’t have a clear policy on VTC training and development
Most counties don’t have policy training in VTCs which is a key component in developing development plans, you will find few development plans, particularly touching on VTCs on most counties’ County Integrated Development Plans (CIDP). Having a county policy will guide counties in developing systems in VTCs including expansion, staffing, enrolment, leadership and management, ICT integration, equipping of VTCs, quality assurance standards and others
Inadequate, incompetent, and unqualified trainers
Most VTCs are grappling with a shortage of trainers for their programmes, this is brought by the fact that qualified trainers shun VTCs because of low remuneration and poor terms of service. This has created a situation whereby VTC principals /managers have resorted to hiring trainers who are not qualified. The result is that most of these trainers are incompetent and fail to pass on the requisite skills (which they don’t have or have little of) to trainees, the net effect is that trainees come out of these institutions with little or no skills at all.
Poor leadership and management of VTCs
Any educational institution needs strong leadership and management to guide it towards attaining its goals and delivering on its mandate, VTCs are not immune to these leadership challenges, leadership, and management of VTCs include the centre principals/managers and Boards of Governors. Most VTCs lack qualified principals/managers and some of them don’t have strong BOGs. VTCs can have strong support from the communities around them if they had proactive BOGs. Good principals/managers will ensure that systems in their institutions are working and ensure the prudent use of financial resources.
Negative attitudes by the communities
Most VTCs are negatively seen these days by communities, some consider them “Schools for academic failures”, institutions only meant to train those students who didn’t perform well in the formal curricula, this has led to communities shunning these institutions and sending their children to other TVET institutions particularly Technical Training Institutes(TTIs) Technical Vocational Colleges(TVCs) Institutes of Science and Technology(ISTs) and National Polytechnics, the net effect has been low enrolment that has even let some of the VTCs to shut down due to lack of students.
Low enrolment and fees arrears
Most VTCs are grappling with low enrolment brought about by a collective of factors including negative attitudes by communities as expounded above, high poverty levels, poor training, and run-down infrastructure, this has led to problems for centre principals/ managers in acquiring training resources, tools and equipment, books due to lack of finances raised from school fees. Even in VTCs with a sizable number of students, collection of fees is a problem, this can be attributed to failed management systems lack of adequate funding, lack of tuition support and bursaries for VTC trainees and high poverty levels in our communities.
Instructor and student absenteeism
Due to the problem of poor leadership in VTCs as stated above and incompetent trainers, and lack of proper quality assurance mechanisms and quality audits of VTCs, there is a high occurrence of trainer absenteeism, which sometimes may be contributed to low morale and low remuneration and terms of service. There is a situation whereby students don’t go to centres because they don’t know if there is an instructor, and equally, instructors don’t go to school because they are not sure if they will find students (low enrolment and high dropout rates). it’s a sad situation where everyone comes to school “when they want”.
Inadequate Infrastructure
As stated, earlier VTCs have suffered systematic neglect since the colonial period, most buildings existing in VTCs are old and derelict, now that they have been decentralized and given to the counties to manage, erstwhile this could be a good thing because of prospects of funding, this has not been forthcoming maybe due to budgetary constraints or a continuation of the blatant neglect these institutions have endured for long. If not for the advent of CDF and community participation most of these institutions would have closed before devolution. The net effect is that most of these institutions lack physical facilities and infrastructures like water, electricity, classrooms, workshops, and offices.
Inadequate or no workshops and equipment.
The main purpose of VTCs is to provide hands practical skills to trainees, but this has not been possible because they lack enough workshops, and adequate modern tools and equipment. So, most of these institutions churn out graduates with no practical skills to speak of.
Lack of marketing for VTCs
Like every business with clients VTCs need to market their courses to their prospective clients, but this is not being done by our centres, you will be surprised to know that a prospective student who is a neighbour to a VTC doesn’t know the courses the centre is offering or even the qualifications needed for such courses.
Irrelevant courses not meeting the market, community and industry needs and outdated curriculum and syllabus
The VTC curriculum is outdated, and its syllabus was developed ages ago before even the establishment of Kenya’s Vision 2030, it’s a theory-based curriculum with no competency-based evaluation to speak off. Most courses being offered by our VTCs are not in touch with the skills needs of their immediate communities, our VTCs train on skills not needed in the market or which their trainees can’t get jobs or self-employ. themselves.
Non-existent ICT use and internet connectivity
The world is now a digital village, use of technology is now taking all spheres of our lives including teaching and learning. Most of our VTCs lack the basic ICT infrastructure safe for the few computers in offices and ICT labs in some of them most of them don’t have access to the internet which is now a leading source of learning tools and aids including books, videos and slides. Our VTCs are increasingly becoming derelicts of the long past by failing to adopt ICT in training, no wonder they are so seen like that by the communities around them.
Lack of employment of VTCs graduates
As earlier pointed out most of VTCs graduates transition with little or no skills at all, this means that they cannot get formal jobs because prospective employers know so. One other important thing is that these trainees come out of these institutions with little or no soft skills, employability skills, entrepreneurship skills and communication skills are not taught in our VTCs, so it’s not a surprise that graduates don’t get formal employment, this has further made worse the problem of negative attitude VTCs get from the communities around them leading to low enrolment.
The above challenges are just the tip of the iceberg of a multitude of problems our VTCs are grappling with, but not all is lost, these VTCs can serve the aspirations of our vision 2030 and produce skilled artisans, technicians and tradesmen and help our communities and diminish the ogre of youth unemployment by equipping trainees with relevant practical skills, that are responsive to the industry and community needs.
Strategies To Mitigate The Challenges Facing VTCs
Counties to develop a robust VTC training policy
Though VTC training is a devolved function policymaking remained with the national government, as of now there is no national policy on VTCs, so the Council of Governors should take a lead in its development.
I think this should be the first step in reviving and streamlining TVET training in VTCs in counties CIDP. If a clear policy on TVET training is put in place especially encompassing the following.
- Leadership and management of VTCs
- Staffing and staff remuneration and welfare
- Funding of VTCs
- Infrastructure development of VTCs
- Provision of necessary tools and equipment
- Curriculum and course development
- ICT integration
- Accreditation of courses and VTC institutions
- Development of innovation projects and production units
- Quality assurance and standards
- Staff training, development, and capacity building
I think counties can draw inspiration from the Sessional Paper No 14 developed by the national government and TSC Acts and Regulations, TVETA Act of 2013 TVET regulations Act of 2015 in developing a VTC policy.
Providing funds for the provision of enough equipment and workshops
Our VTCs should be able to adequately impart practical skills to their trainees if they have workshops and equipment, the counties should as a matter of priority increase budgetary allocations to VTCs funds for building workshops and equipment. The only way we can save our VTCs from collapsing is if these institutions can produce trainees with enough competencies in the job market and those that the communities need, there will be no shortcut in achieving this without proper hands-on training that adequate workshops, equipment coupled with competent trainers will provide.
Recruitment of adequate, competent instructors and workshop technicians.
There is no trainee more competent than the instructor, there will be no use in equipping our workshops even with lots of equipment without qualified staff to conduct and instruct trainees on practical skills. So, adequate qualified and competent trainers and technicians must be employed for the acute understaffing in VTCs. The counties can do this by having a good staffing policy that ensures qualified staff are hired, another way is to make these positions attractive to professionals who erstwhile don’t have technical training pedagogy background to join up as instructors. Counties should also ensure that all trainers are accredited with TVETA as instructors.
Engaging competent principals/ managers and leadership for VTCs
Good management can take an organization to greater heights despite challenges by ensuring the prudent use of resources. Counties should ensure that VTC principals/ managers are qualified and have the necessary leadership and financial management skills to run these centres, prior successful experience in running TVET or VTC institutions should be given emphasis during the engagement, and I propose that should be a promotional cadre from among suitably experienced instructors in our VTCs. Also, the counties should make sure that individuals appointed to the board of governors are proactive individuals with considerable influence in the communities from which these TCS are located, this ensures that VTCs have goodwill and actual support from the community.
Provision of adequate learning materials and teaching resources.
In line with the provision of adequate workshops and equipment counties should ensure that VTCs libraries are well stocked with books and other teaching and learning materials, this includes textbooks, chairs, tables etc. This called for increasing tuition support to VTCs
ICT investments in VTCs, including internet connectivity and Digital learning centres.
ICT influences every sphere of our lives now, the world is an internet of things, and our VTCs should be brought out of the digital darkness to the digital age. The immense benefits that VTCs can draw from a robust ICT infrastructure include integration of ICT into learning and teaching, use of the internet to get learning and teaching materials, the establishment of Digital Learning Centres, Establishment of online learning platforms, integration of flexible and blended learning in VTCs, and promotion of Flexible Skills Development, this will ensure that our VTCs in the long term become centres of lifelong learning opportunities and skills development.
So, counties should provide funds to equip our VTCs with ICT hardware and software needs, networking infrastructure and broadband internet connectivity. It’s no longer expensive to have broadband internet connectivity in Kenya and counties can easily partner with numerous ISPs and get discounts to actualize this.
Establishing of robust bursary scheme and sponsorship for VTCs trainees to encourage enrolment.
As earlier espoused VTCs are seriously grappling with low enrolment due to numerous factors, the main of course is the lack of fees and problems in fee collections, this has adversely affected the financial operations of these centres. As a measure to mitigate this and to improve enrolment counties need to put in place a robust bursary scheme, and tuition support grants particularly for VTCs more so since it’s one of our delegated functions. Providing attractive bursaries to trainees in VTCs counties will promote interest in these institutions that will lead to higher enrolment and efficient running and management of these centres.
It’s important to note that National Government, introduced the Conditional Grants called Subsidized Vocational Training Centres Support Grant (SVTCSG) which has now been converted into sharable revenue to counties. This grant helped VTCs and led to a huge increase in enrolment to supplement this, the VTCs are expected to work out their ways to financial sustainability through Income Generating Activities (IGAs).
The counties can also partner with other stakeholders in creating this bursary scheme, especially through CDF, organizations and companies operating in the respective counties.
Establishing CBET market-driven short courses geared towards acquiring practical skills
VTCs are the primary training institutions to provide hands-on experience, and since they are there with the communities directly, their training programmes and courses should be tailored towards filling the skills gap that exists in that community, it should not be hard for a kid who wants to be a painter to do a course on painting because he is not good in math or doesn’t have a C- or D+, the kid just needs to be a painter, why not make him a painter. This is only possible if VTCs develop short course competency-based training. There are tons of skills that the community needs and lack qualified tradesmen and VTCs need to fill these skill gaps, this may include block and brick laying(Masonry), Tile Laying, Welding and Fabrication, Plumbing, Hair Dressing, Dress Making, Carpentry and Joinery, Shoe Making and Repair, Motor Cycle Repair, Panel Beating, Mobile Phone Repair, Electrical Wiring, Special Floor and Wall Finishes, Cake Making, Brick Making, Motor Cycle Driving Course, Driving Course, Biogas Installation, Poultry Keeping Course, Dairy Farming Course, Numerous Agribusiness Courses’ can tell you for free that these courses don’t need a formal education curriculum or for a student to do calculus.
This is the kind, of course, our VTCs can start and benefit the communities around them positively.
Encouraging VTCs to start innovative projects and production units
The funding that VTCs will receive from counties and other development partners will never be enough and VTCs need to be creative in creating their funds apart from fees to be truly self-sustainable, VTCs need to come up with production units which will serve to instruct their students in practical skills and create income for themselves, most VTCs will already have the equipment and manpower(instructors and trainees) to successfully start and run these programmes, I don’t see why a VTC with carpentry and joinery equipment can make furniture for sale, or Dressmaking equipment not make uniforms for schools and company staff, or Masonry Course not install bio-gas in our communities, or Agribusiness course not sell poultry products and dairy products to their communities.
The possibilities for these are immense and it’s only up to the VTC’s management to take their innovativeness to greater levels. this will foster a culture of manufacturing and innovation in counties.
Counties also to prioritize the recruitment of VTC graduates to remove the tag that they are unemployable. Counties should also start making it a big advantage to be hired for county jobs especially if you are a graduate of VTC from their county. This will spur the enrolment of trainees in the VTCs of their counties instead of joining private colleges and other public institutions.
Policies to use VTCs production units and products in county government procurement plans
I think this will be a good strategy to help our VTCs production units if the counties source products and services from VTCs, these may include furniture, Staff Uniforms, Stationaries, construction Works and Materials, Repair and Maintenance of County Vehicles, Use of VTCs facilities in seminars and Training, Staff Development and training.
Continuous upskilling, training, and development of instructors
Most of the trainers in our VTCs don’t have the prerequisite skills, so programmes for upskilling should be put in place in conjunction with other partners for example the national government which has an upskilling programme with AFDB to upskill technical and vocational teachers, also counties can build partnerships on their own.
Other partner includes Commonwealth of Learning (COL) and Invest Africa which provides online courses to Trainers in commonwealth regions also Wadwhani Foundation owners of Learnwise Online Platform provide a variety of skills including employability skills, workplace skills, ICT Skills, entrepreneurship skills, retail skills, communications skill, retail skills, etc.
Better remuneration and terms of service for trainers
I have pointed out that one of the problems grappling our VTCs is the lack of adequate instructors and incompetent or unqualified instructors, the contributing factor is that qualified and competent instructors choose to go to other employers for example TSC and PSC than be employed as instructors of VTCs because of better remuneration than counties being offered by other entities. To ensure that VTCs acquire and retain instructors then they should provide attractive remuneration and terms of service, I fully understand it’s a budgetary issue, but it is a necessary evil that must be done soon and quickly.
Accreditation of VTCs by TVETA
Counties should ensure that training is offered by VTCs and that instructors themselves are accredited by the regulating authority TVETA. This ensures VTCs standards are at par with other TVET institutions, this will remove the tag that VTC’s training is substandard, and they are “institutions for academic failures”.
Counties to put in place a robust quality assurance standards system for VTCs
The only way we can ensure that training is actually taking place in our VTCs and that they are being managed well according to established policies and regulations is to have a strong quality assurance and monitoring system, ensuring that trainers teach effectively and have necessary teaching documents is foremost the job of the centre manager, but the overall duty of ensuring that systems are working as is required is through frequent monitoring, audit and evaluation. This is what counties should endeavour to do and they can draw this from procedures of TSC including performance appraisals.
Establishment of Centres of Excellence among VTCs in counties
It may not be entirely possible to equip every VTC in a county with all the needed and necessary facilities, workshops and equipment for all courses and programmes they offer, the main reason being budgetary constraints and counties’ priorities. But we can equip all the VTCs with some facilities and equipment depending on their strengths and needs including existing facilities, equipment, trainers etc.
This is where the counties are well placed in developing Centres of Excellence for each VTC based on these strengths. Centres of excellence will spur a good opportunity cost advantage by taking advantage of all already available resources coupled with new directed resources to improve on existing ones.
A good example of a centre of excellence model for a VTC is a NITA-approved VTC providing a whole range of Driving Courses for the whole county up to even including plant operations. Such a county would only need a VTC with enough land and invest in buying instructional manuals, training vehicles and plant and trainers. Such a county won’t have a problem developing driving skills for its citizens at an affordable tuition, case in point is the majority of Boda Boda operators counties spend a fortune to train them in private driving schools. This is just one of the models that can be successful.
Other measures that counties should consider are as follows
- Encompassing and installation of Management Information Systems for all VTCs.
- Putting in place measures for prudent financial management in VTCs including procurement.
- Encouraging cohesion and transfer of skills among VTCs by encouraging liaisons through sports and games.
- Establishing trade fairs and open days for VTCs within the counties to encourage innovation and creative ideas by trainees and VTCs.
- Provision of annual budgetary allocation in the County budget for the development of the VTC sector.
- Collaboration with the national government, parents, communities, and sponsors in the financing of appropriate facilities in the sector.
- Establishment of a mechanism for continuous review of fees charged in VTCs.
- Promotion of private sector financing through social partnership and corporate social responsibility.
- Promotion of income-generating activities through expanded training programmes and supply of goods and services.
- Develop a financing plan and mechanism for collaboration with all stakeholders in the sector.
- Systematically and substantially increase County budgetary allocation to the VTC sector.
- Institutionalize and build capacity for prudent financial management to ensure efficient and cost-effective use of resources in Vocational Training Centres.
- Ensure balanced representation of stakeholders, the private sector, and partners in the governance of the sector.
- Develop guidelines for determining fees chargeable in the VTCs to determine levels of funding.
- Develop guidelines for the utilization of funds from income-generating activities and production units.
- Development of appropriate physical infrastructure for students with special needs.
- Provision of recreational, sports and games facilities
DEVELOPMENT OF THE SCHEME OF SERVICE FOR VOCATIONAL TRAINERS
Before devolution VTC or youth polytechnic staff had a scheme of service called Scheme of Service for Vocational Training Personnel approved By the Public Service Commission of Kenya and Issued by The Ministry of State for Public Service on May 2012 that had a clear progression part and job cadres for VTC personnel earlier referred in the scheme as youth polytechnics
When Youth polytechnics were fully also devolved staff under then the ministry of youth affairs were also devolved. On the advent of devolution, most counties did not domesticate and approved the scheme of service for VTC personnel, as at present counties have different schemes of service for VTC personnel largely drawn from the scheme of service for TVET trainers or their own adopted scheme of service. This has created a lot of problems including but not limited to the lack of promotions of VTC staff since the start of devolution, the lack of clear minimum qualifications for different cadres of VTC staff, and the lack of clear progression part for VTC staff.
This has exacerbated the problem of inadequate staffing in our VTCs because most qualified instructors have shunned our VTCs due to poor terms of service, and lack of career progression. It’s sad that since devolution the council of governors have not developed a common scheme of service yet there was an existing scheme of service that only needed domestication and adoption.
So going forward the Education Committee should find suitable staff at the secretariat of COG who fully understand the VET sector to work on domestication of the earlier scheme of service for youth polytechnic personnel and liaise with the relevant technical directorates in the counties to refine the document as soon as possible. The counties meanwhile make sure that the approved staff establishment is in line with the scheme of service for a seamless career progression. It is important to note that the scheme of service should indicate the entry-level cadres and promotional levels for all job roles of VTC personnel, this includes VTC instructors (Including VTC Instructors, VTC Principals/Managers) and Vocational training Officers (Including VTC Training Officers, Directors). The scheme of service should provide a clear pathway from the entry-level i.e., lowest instructor level to the highest level (Director). The functions of each cadre should be clearly stated, the duties and responsibilities of each cadre should be clearly stated, and the minimum requirements for each cadre should also be clearly stated.
In summary, drawing from the Scheme of Service for Youth Polytechnic Personnel the Scheme of Service should encompass the following important structural elements.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
ADMINISTRATION AND TRAINING SCOPE OF THE SCHEME
Responsibility for Administration
Training Scope
THE VOCATIONAL TRAINING PERSONNEL FUNCTION
Vocational Training Centre Instructors Function
Vocational Training Officers’ Function
GRADING STRUCTURE AND SCOPE
Grading Structure
Vocational Instructors
Vocational Training Officers
Conversion to the new grading structure
Vocational Training Centres Instructors
Vocational Training Officers
PROVISION OF POSTS
ENTRY INTO THE SCHEME OF SERVICE
Direct Appointment
Incremental Credit
ADVANCEMENT WITHIN THE SCHEME OF SERVICE
RECOGNIZED QUALIFICATIONS
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SCHEME
JOB AND APPOINTMENT SPECIFICATIONS
Vocational Training Centres Instructors
Duties and Responsibilities
Requirements for Appointment
Vocational Training Officers
Duties and Responsibilities
Requirements for Appointment
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMPETENCE-BASED EDUCATION AND TRAINING
VTCS are basic education institutions intended to offer opportunities to acquire quality skills and knowledge to make them employable while at the same time providing avenues and paths for attaining higher education through the technical and vocational education system. Specifically, they also equip the trainees with technical and entrepreneurial skills based on appropriate technology and CBET enabling them to unleash their entrepreneurial capacity to fully exploit local community resources for employment creation.
Internationally and nationally, there has been a shift in TVET towards competency-based training and evaluation.
The TVET reforms have been tremendous this past year, and I laud the TVET Curriculum Development Assessment Certification Council (CDACC) for spearheading the development of Curriculum-Based Evaluation and Training (CBET), this was informed because of a mismatch between skills and the labour market. The CBET curricula addressed this need by bridging the skills gap in our communities and the training offered in our TVET institutions, which our VTCs are the best placed to offer because they are the basic Vocational Skills Training institution at the community level, a VTC is present is virtually at every ward. But adoption of CBET curricula in our VTCs has been low due to a myriad of factors key among these are
- Inadequate tools and equipment
- Inadequate learning and teaching materials
- Inadequate qualified personnel
TVET will be provided to guarantee human and economic development with the outcomes being human resources fit for the job market. Thus, the graduates must possess the right attitudes to work, have the right core values and above all, can be relied upon to deliver at the workplace. It is equally important to entrench soft or generic skills such as integrity; ethics, professionalism, and accountability in VTC Sector.
Relatively, the industry is offering few direct employment opportunities for VTC graduates due to a mismatch between the training offered and the actual skills demands of the industry.
The VTC philosophy is based on the national development agenda and in particular, Vision 2030. It is also focused on providing skills that meet the needs of the workplace as well as self-employment. Tertiary education, including TVET, is premised on the principle of “education and training for the workplace”.
With the introduction of the CBC curricula in Basic education, it is expected that most CBC students will find a pathway through our VTCs for refinement of acquired CBC skills under the CBET curricula, this will put a strain on the already unprepared VTCs to offer CBET curricula.
It is pertinent to note that TVET training and philosophy are geared towards CBET curricula, and it is not a question of IF but WHEN our VTCs should fully adopt the CBET curriculum. It’s the onus of the Education committee to work with regulatory partners like TVETA, CDACC, NITA, and KNEC to ensure that all VTCs in our counties adopt CBET curricula. This will come with immense budgetary requirements to put in place the necessary supporting infrastructure, recruitment of qualified personnel and expanding facilities including modern tools and equipment.
The overall objective of TVET is to produce a critical mass of well-trained human resources to implement programmes and projects identified in Kenya’s Vision 2030. There is, therefore, a need not only to train new persons but also to re-train the available trained personnel to effectively adopt the CBET curricula in our VTCs.
Thus, the VTC sector requires a major transformation to allow the following to happen:
- Re-align VTC programmes to county goals, national goals, and market needs.
- Expand available VTC training opportunities and make them more accessible to those who need them.
- Employ affirmative action to ensure equity concerning gender, vulnerable groups, and persons with special needs.
- Entrench competency-based evaluation and training (CBET).
- Improving the Vocational Training Centres to enable them to offer training programmes within the mainstream technical education and training system.
- Rationalizing training programmes offered in the VTCs to provide market-responsive training that meets the needs of different target groups and the socio-economic needs of immediate communities.
- Undertaking an audit of the tools, equipment, and infrastructure development programme for financing
- Identify suitable courses to respond to labour market needs locally and globally.
- Developing business training programmes to inculcate entrepreneurial culture in the VTCs trainees.
- Engaging Quality Assurance and Standards (QAS) personnel to monitor and evaluate VTCs to ensure compliance with set standards in the Kenya National Qualification Framework (KNQF).
- Ensure all programmes are assessed internally and externally and certified by recognized Assessment and Certification bodies.
- Developing flexible curriculum delivery mechanisms such as part-time, evening, e-learning, and holiday programmes to accommodate a variety of learners.
