TVET gains as it forms part of Big Four agenda

Siala Technical Training Institute workshop instructor Henry Ondieki (right) demonstrates to Vocational and Technical Training Principal Secretary Kevit Desai (centre) how a motor machine works, October 25, 2018. The ministry is working to increase enrolment to technical colleges. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • There are 1,500 TVET public institutions in the country. Of all learning institution categories, TVET led the growth charts by 26.6 percent in 2018.
  • The expectation is that technical and vocational training will help reduce the acute youth unemployment burden as most of the unemployed lack technical skills.

Tertiary education is set to undergo tremendous changes that appear to favour Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions while making universities to reinvent themselves and undertake painful reforms or risk shutting down.

There is a deliberate effort by the government to expand training at TVET institutions countrywide, driven by the need to align the sector with the development ambitions of the country.

There are 1,500 TVET public institutions in the country. Of all learning institution categories, TVET led the growth charts by 26.6 percent in 2018.

This is a major leap considering that new primary schools rose by only seven percent. The growth was not only in the number of institutions, as enrolment shot up by 32.3 percent to 364,000.

INCREASED UPTAKE

In the same period, university enrolment declined by about 1.7 percent to stand at 513,000 students.

“There has been some positive change towards TVET by both parents and students. In 2019, about 1,500 students who had been placed to various degree programmes in universities opted to enrol in TVET,” TVET authority director-general and CEO, Dr Kipkirui Langat, told the Sunday Nation.

There has been a fall in university admissions since 2016, despite a rise in the number of young men and women exiting Form Four.

This, coupled with the pursuit by the government of the Big Four Agenda and Kenya Vision 2030, has made it necessary to expand TVET in Kenya.

The two development strategies call for technical skills in larger numbers, which cannot be realised under the current set-up.

UNEMPLOYMENT

The expectation is that technical and vocational training will help reduce the acute youth unemployment burden as most of the unemployed lack technical skills.

“We want to have at least one vocational institute in every constituency so that all students can access technical education,” Vocational and Technical Training Principal Secretary Kevit Desai said while launching the County Dialogues on Quality Competency-Based Education at Kangaru School in Embu County.

Sh6.8 billion has been allocated in the 2019/2020 budget for the construction and equipping of 140 technical institutions. Each will cost the government about Sh50 million and accommodate 1,000 students.

“Students who do not make it to public universities have a chance to join technical institutes to pursue courses of their choice," said Dr Desai.

This is a major shift in focus from where high premium was placed on a university degree and technical skills looked down on.

BLEAK FUTURE

Employers now prefer superior technical skills to just crisp degree certificates. This situation has also been exacerbated by the proliferation of many fake degrees in the job market.

The TVET institutions stand to benefit from the changes in the universities. Suspended Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, while reading this year’s budget, warned that some of public universities may be forced to merge or close down some campuses that are not viable.

Mr Rotich’s pronouncement appears to be a decision arrived at higher levels of government as his Education counterpart, Prof George Magoha, followed up the warning by summoning vice chancellors of all public universities on June 20.

“We shall review all the universities’ public financial and management systems; appraise ongoing projects with a view to restructuring them; and implement radical measures that will include merger or closure of some universities and university campuses that are not able to sustain their operations against the number of students admitted or degree courses offered,” Mr Rotich said.

Prof Magoha is understood to have given the VCs two weeks to consult and give him a report about how to get universities out of the bleak future they find themselves in.

LOW ADMISSION

Mergers and closure of some campuses appear to be the preferred options of the government, a move that has drawn mixed reactions, especially from the political class.

The Commission for University Education (CUE) is also expected to submit an independent report on the expected mergers at the end of this month.

The self-sponsored programmes, popularly known as parallel programmes, no longer mint the billions of shillings they used to.

Since 2016, university admissions have reduced with the scaling down of the number of students scoring the minimum university entry mark of C+ at the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams.

In the 2018 KCSE, only 90,377 candidates scored C+ and above out of the 660,204 who sat the examination.

The TVET institutions have lower entry grade requirements, with some programmes such as motor vehicle mechanics, masonry and plumbing admitting students who scored a mean grade of E. They will therefore absorb many Form Four leavers.

AWARENESS

Pointing to where the focus lies now, Mr Rotich announced that Sh23.3 billion has been allocated for TVET in the 2019/20 Budget.

Data from the Kenya Economic Survey 2019 shows that last year the government advanced education loans worth Sh1.3 billion to 44,782 students in TVET institutions, an increase of 50.6 percent from the previous year.

In an interview at his Jogoo House office, Dr Desai said the biggest challenge facing the institutions is lack of awareness about their existence, the courses on offer and the job opportunities available.

The colleges also suffer from an erroneous perception that they are for failures and those who cannot make the cut in the white-collar field.

“Parents tend to relate good livelihoods to academic scores. It’s a global tendency. But, we ought to see the interconnection between many sectors of the economy,” says Dr Desai.

WORKFORCE

But, he says they are involving leaders at the grassroots, MPs and governors to spread the word about the institutions and their role in creating employment.

“TVETs have a direct relation to security because we have a youth bulge which is busy and healthy. We need to keep them gainfully occupied and equip them with skills to help them make meaningful contribution to the economy.

"We also aiming at enforcing national cohesion because these colleges are spread all over the country,” says the PS.

Dr Desai says more than Sh31 billion has so far been spent on building and equipping technical colleges throughout the country.

They will specialise in a variety of courses to create career pathways for the Form Four leavers.

Some of the programmes include sports, performing arts, visual arts, humanities and business studies, pure sciences, applied sciences, technical engineering and others.

The PS says they are hoping to enrol a million students every year in five years, leading to about five million graduates.