The Constitution of Kenya (2010) has the Bill of Rights at its core while the Kenya Vision 2030, acknowledges the need to reform the education and training to create a sector fit for purpose. A good VTC policy will address the constitutional requirements, county and national aspirations in respect to vocational training as well as offering direction in modernizing and re-branding a county’s VTC sector.
Under the Constitution, education and training in Kenya is governed and managed under a two-tier government, the National Government and the County Governments. Education and training are structured as follows; basic education, TVET and University education. Basic education covers pre-school, primary education and secondary education.
Tertiary education comprises TVET, teacher training and higher education. TVET constitutes technical, vocational education and training and is offered at all levels from basic to university education.
The Constitution of Kenya (2010) articles 43.1f, 53.1b and 55a makes education a right of every Kenyan while the Kenya Vision 2030 underscores the importance of education in ensuring relevant human and social capital for sustainable development. In particular, the Constitution guarantees every child to free and compulsory basic education. It further provides for access to affordable tertiary education, training and skills development. The reform in education and training shifts emphasis from knowledge-reproduction to knowledge-production.
Articles in the Constitution relevant to education and training
The functions of Education and training are shared between the national and county governments as contained in Schedule 4 of the Constitution. The functions of the National Government are: education policy, standards, curriculum, examinations, granting of university charters, universities, tertiary educational institutions, institutions of research, higher learning, primary schools, special education, secondary schools, special education institutions and promotion of sports and sports education.
The functions of the County Government in relation to education are: pre-primary education, vocational training centres or village polytechnics, home-craft Centres, farmers training Centres and childcare facilities.
All the reforms to be contained in any VTC policy should be anchored in the Bill of Rights contained in the Constitution of Kenya (2010). The Constitution makes provision for the rights of Kenyan people to education.
In particular:
(a) Article 10(1) of the Constitution states that the national values and principles of governance are binding on all State organs, State officers, public officers and all persons whenever any of them (a) applies or interprets the Constitution; (b) enacts, applies or interprets any law; or (c) makes or implements public policy decisions.
(b) Article 10(2) of the Constitution sets out the national values and principles of governance. These include inter alia, the sharing and devolution of power, the rule of law and the participation of the people; equity, inclusiveness, equality, human rights, non-discrimination and the protection of marginalized groups, good governance, integrity, transparency and accountability, and sustainable development.
(c) Article 11(2) (b) and (c) of the Constitution recognizes the role of science and indigenous technologies in the development of the nation, and the promotion of intellectual property rights of the people of Kenya.
(d) Articles 20, 35, 42, and 43 of the Constitution state clearly that every person has the right to education. If the State claims that it does not have the resources to implement the right, a court, tribunal, or other authority shall be guided by the principle that it is the responsibility of the State to show that the resources are not available to meet that constitutional right. The State will give priority to factoring in access to vulnerable groups or individuals (women, older members of society, persons with disabilities, children, youth, members of minority or marginalized communities, and members of particular ethnic, religious or cultural communities
(f) Articles 62, 63, 66 refer to public land, which will be vested in and held by a county government in trust for the people resident in the county, and shall be administered on their behalf by the National Land Commission; unregistered community land to be held in trust by county governments on behalf of the communities for which it is held; enactment by Parliament of appropriate legislation ensuring that investments in property benefit local communities and their economies. The articles are relevant since educational infrastructure is constructed on public, and or community land and some institutions especially at tertiary level will need to hold title to the land on which they are established.
(g) Articles 174, 175, 176, 189 and Schedule 4 of the Constitution have provisions on the devolution of services to county governments, ensuring equity, access, quality and special attention to the minorities and marginalized groups. The national government will determine and efficient and effective mechanisms for devolving education and training services to the county level as and where necessary.
(h) Articles 201(a), (d), and (e), 226, and 227 have provisions on Public Finance relating to transparency, accountability, and appropriate governance of public monies. Governance structures in education and training will to a large extent be guided by the same.
(i) Chapter 13 and its articles on the Public Service provides for the values and principles of public service. Boards of governors and the managements of educational and training institutions will abide by these principles.
VTC Sector Philosophy
The VTC philosophy is based on 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 “education and training for the workplace”.
TVET has variants ranging from vocational education and training (VET) on one level and technical education and training (TET) on another level of responsibility. Vocational Education and Training (VET) components are responsible for the production of skilled operators to service construction, maintenance and operation of equipment and infrastructure while the technical education and training (TET) components are responsible for producing graduates who perform supervisory and management functions as well as maintenance of systems, machines and equipment in industry.
TVET will be provided for the purpose of guaranteeing human and economic development with the outcomes being human resources fit for the job market. Thus, it is essential that the graduates 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.
VTC Sector Vision
The vision for the VTC sub-sector is to provide skilled and globally competitive employable human resource.
VTC Sector Mission
To provide, promote and co-ordinate the training sector by assuring quality, inclusiveness and relevance for the enhancement of the national economy and global competitiveness.
Goal of VTC sector
To provide relevant and adequate skills and competencies in strategic disciplines by 2020 for spurring industrial and economic development in line with the aspirations of the Kenyan peoples.
VTC Sector Objectives
The main objective of VTC sector in the counties is to develop an effectively coordinated and harmonized VTC system that is capable of producing quality skilled human resource with the right attitudes and values required for growth and prosperity of the various sectors of the economy.
Specific objectives of VTC sector are to:
- Provide adequate and appropriate skilled Artisans, Craftsmen, Technicians and Technologists at all levels of the economy through practical training and work experience;
- Transfer technology continuously through collaborative approach between VTC institutions and the relevant industries;
- Promote dignity and decency of labour, particularly manual work;
- Provide increased training opportunities for the increasing school leavers and other trainees to increase employability;
- Provide continuous upgrading of skills and knowledge at the pace and ability of the trainees;
- Provide a dynamic curriculum responsive to the manpower needs of a dynamic economy;
- Impart marketable skills, technical know-how and attitudes that respond to contemporary labour market demands by the industry, informal sector and for self-employment;
- Build on gains acquired in prior learning by promoting and sustaining entrepreneurial and technological innovations among the youth in VTCs;
- Re-direct the potential of learners towards productive economic activities and
- Provide life skills to learners that will enable them to cope with the challenges of adulthood and working life.
Guiding Principles that Bomet County should adopt in its VTC policy
The County Government of Bomet should endeavor to operate within the following principles to improve Vocational skill training for Bomet VTCs:
- Access and equity – Every resident of Bomet County has a right to access quality and relevant education and training. The policy shall therefore create an enabling environment, opportunities and mechanisms to provide pathways to those seeking to pursue quality technical training in our VTCs.
- Inclusivity and respect for cultural and social diversity– National values shall be respected and promoted in all VTCs and this includes principles that pay attention to the people with disability and respect human dignity while ensuring equity, equality and protection of marginalized communities.
- Non-discrimination– There shall be no discrimination on grounds of race, colour, gender, religion, national or social origin, economic status, political or other opinions.
- Quality and Relevance –Emphasis shall be placed on demand driven training. This principle shall promote technical, professionalism, knowledge and qualification needed in the various sectors of the economy.
- National integration– Employment opportunities, occupational standards and development prospects within VTC structures shall be made available to all Kenyans
- Life-long Learning– The training will be designed to operate within a framework of open-ended and flexible structures in the context of lifelong education and training. This is the principle for continuing training for improvement of professional qualifications and updating of knowledge, skills and understanding.
- Entrepreneurship Culture– VTCs examination and competence assessment shall be centred on promoting and developing innovation, creativity and entrepreneurial minds for self-reliance.
- Complementarity -Education for those receiving technical, industrial, vocational and entrepreneurship training in the form of on-the-job training or other training in institutions or other facilities.
- Environment –Protection of the environment and the common heritage of the country.
- Partnerships – Creating and promoting an enabling environment for Public-Private Partnerships for enhancing investment in technical training
- Information and Communication – Promoting integration of information and marketing of training opportunities through ICT.
- Leadership: Leadership within VTCs Structure and organs shall be based on the principles of serving people with integrity, ethical practices, respect for the people and fairness among others
- Integrity and Ethical Practice: TVET sector will aim at providing leadership structures and organs based on integrity and ethical practices to promote the servant leadership principles of respect for human rights and fairness for the people.
- Competitiveness –meeting the needs of local and global labour markets
- Culture of technology transfer and adoption of new and emerging technologies for use in productive systems leading to employment creation
- Sustainability of training: VTCs will always strive to optimize the quality of training outputs and outcomes, delivery and funding while ensuring perpetuation and prudent utilization of available resources
Best practice and national trends in VTC training
There are some notable practices that characterize the current situation in VTC training nationally and globally that may qualify as best practice and hence influence the formulation of policy for VTC sector in Bomet County. These include:
- A well-defined and articulated policy for VTCs;
- VTC -sector policy aligned to National development goals;
- Clearly articulated mechanisms for assuring access and equity in VTCs;
- Strong partnership between industry and VTCs;
- An incentivized environment that makes TVTCs vibrant, including good facilities and well-trained human resources,
- Good accessibility of reliable information and knowledge resources on VTCs
- Well organized institutions and processes for VTCs;
- Effective transition system of well-organized and diversified pathways that connect VTC sector and the world of work; and
- Sustainable financing mechanisms for VTCs.
Desired Situation of VTC sector in Bomet County
County Government of Bomet should with VTCs to re-assess how they manage their operational capacity to more fairly distribute learning opportunities between the competing and specific needs of a wider range of policy aims and citizens.
Producing VTCs graduates that cannot be absorbed into the formal employment market or that do not have the skills that employers seek, is wasteful.
Introducing change towards a more responsive demand-led approach is a key strategy for local workforce development.
Bomet County Government should make sure VTCs should not continue with ‘business-as-usual’.
Vocational Training Centres should consider a more proactive role in assessing and responding to the needs of the local community as well as continuing to address traditional national needs. This requires a more ‘autonomous’ institution, able to:
- Make local decisions based upon local knowledge
- Address local needs not always present in national strategies
- Anticipate and respond to change independently
- Identify and implement opportunities for growth and income generation
Taking into account all the social, economic and technological drivers, a consensus is emerging that a more flexible, more responsive vocational sector is required. This flexibility impacts upon:
- Institutional leadership
- The quality and competence of trainers
- Modes of study
- Methods of training delivery
- Institutional administration and structures
- The equity of capacity planning together with the underpinning support and infrastructure this requires.
Flexible learning focuses on offering students choices about when, where and how they learn. It describes what an institution needs to consider to implement the flexibility required to meet the needs of a diverse range of learners. Flexible learning can include:
- Using technology to provide remote or online study
- Work-based learning
- Part-time learning
- Open-ended programmes
- Distance and/or blended learning
- Making single units available not just whole programmes
Efforts should be channeled in order to achieve the overall objective of VTC sector in Bomet County, to transform training into a system that effectively provides relevant and adequate skills for industrial and economic development identified in the County’s CIDP and Kenya’s Vision 2030.
VTC sector in Bomet will therefore require a major transformation as follows:
- Assure quality in VTCs on all aspects of competency-based education and training, skills instruction design, development and delivery;
- Most public sector technical and vocational institutes tend not to specialize in training for a particular economic sector, but offer a range of generic courses, which do not always correspond to the diversity of actual economic activities. The training is generally not geared towards self-employment as testing mainly evaluates the cognitive domain with minimal emphasis on the affective and psychomotor domains. VTCs programmes need to be market driven and address the needs of the workplace as well as promote self-employment. Infrastructure and equipment in TVET institutions need to be improved to correspond with the rapid technological changes. There is low adoption of ICT in VTCs by trainers and managers.
- Ensure that all courses in VTCs are competency based, market-driven and address the needs of the workplace as well as promote employability, soft, generic and life skills in partnership with private sector and professional bodies;
- Initiate and mainstream competence-based training to enable VTCs graduates acquire skills, knowledge and right attitudes to perform jobs to the required standard in collaboration with industry;
- Provide a framework for reforming VTCs to shift from time bound, curriculum-based training to flexible, competency-based training; and supply–led to demand-driven training;
- Re-align VTC programmes to County goals, National goals and market needs;
- Expand available VTCs training opportunities for more access
- Employ affirmative action to increase equity;
- Adopt competence-based assessment and skills verification with the involvement of all TVET stakeholders and industry;
- Reform governance and management of the TVET sector and institutions;
- Assure the quality of delivery of programmes both internally and externally;
- Manage VTCs rebranding process;
- Develop and implement a mechanism for sustainable financing of VTC Training.
Bomet County Government should always try to work within existing national and institutional policy aims. The VTCs target groups correspond well with those identified in many policy documents e.g.
- Youth (16-24) many of this age group do not have access to relevant post-secondary education and training opportunities
- Adults seeking further training as a first step towards productive employment or those seeking re-training opportunities to enhance present qualifications or to develop new skills for employment (effectively seeking to provide an adult and continuing education service)
- Traditionally disadvantaged groups such as women and girls
The informal employment sectors
