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.