Over 500 graduate from artisan training project
Wambui Christine one of the 558 artisans who graduated from a training programme run at the Alibhai Shariff Centre of Excellence in Nairobi in partnership with Housing Finance Kenya. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE
What you need to know:
- The programme is approved by the Ministry of Science, Education and Technology. It was set up to address the gaps in skills in the construction industry.
- Kenya is facing an acute shortage of qualified plumbers and masons as students shun technical education in favour of more popular courses.
More than 500 artisans have graduated from a training programme run at the Alibhai Shariff Centre of Excellence in Nairobi in partnership with Housing Finance Kenya.
Alibhai Shariff is a decade old retailer of construction material in Kenya.
The 558 graduates, male and female drawn from Nairobi and its environs, took courses in carpentry, metal fabrication, painting and electrical works. The training was sponsored by Alibhai Shariff.
The programme is approved by the Ministry of Science, Education and Technology. It was set up to address the gaps in skills in the construction industry.
UNCERTIFIED ARTISANS
Speaking during the ceremony Mr Frank Ireri, Housing Finance Managing Director said: “We are delighted with the way this programme has proceeded and fulfilled its core mission of enhancing students’ technical capacities”.
Though the programme was in it pilot phase, Mr Ireri revealed, it would be extended because ‘the training has surpassed all expectations’.
Kenya is facing an acute shortage of qualified plumbers and masons as students shun technical education in favour of more popular courses.
In 2014, The Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya (IQSK) had estimated that the cost of the ratio of labour to building cost had grown to 25 per cent from 20 per cent in 2012, making construction more expensive for aspiring home owners and property developers.
A year before that, the National Construction Authority Chairman Steven Oundo had said certified artisans were now charging about Sh2,000 per day from between Sh500 and Sh1,200 a few years before that.
This, Mr Oundo had explained, had left property developers at the mercy of uncertified artisans and compromised standards.
The artisans were trained by local instructors, alumni of the Global Tool Trainer Certification (GTTC) at the Stanley Black and Decker University in Dubai. The supervision was offered by Mafundi Wa Kenya Association.
The initiative is one of the ambitious plans laid out in the Vision 2030 flagship project, which aims to train 1 million artisans by 2016 Over 250,000 artisans need to be trained each year in order to reach this target.
