Nairobi: The Ministry of Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, has called on skilled youth to seek foreign jobs as a measure to tackle the unemployment in the country.
According to Kenya News Agency, Ogamba noted that the current Technical and Vocational education plays a key role in improving the economy of a country.
Speaking while congratulating graduates at Ol’lessos National Polytechnic in Nandi County, CS Ogamba divulged that the Kenya Kwanza government recognises the importance of Technical and Vocational Training Colleges (TVETs) in equipping the youth with the necessary technical skills and attitudes to enable them to compete in the employment market as well as create self-employment. He further revealed that the Ministry has put in place a competence-based TVET curriculum that provides a dual training policy, where trainees spend 50% of their study in college, whereas the other 50% is spent in the industry, where they acquire the necessary practical skills in their area of specialisation, thus making them fit for even the foreign employment market.
The CS noted that the Affordable Housing projects and the industrial parks being set up in various parts of the country are among the avenues offering practical industrial skills for the students in TVET institutions that should be utilised. ‘This curriculum provides an opportunity for learners to acquire training milestones at their own base in a given level. As a Ministry, we have recognised the reality that the industry has an accessible skilled workforce that obtains their skills through apprentices. This is the reason we have taken the opportunity to enrol up to one million students this year,’ explained Ogamba.
He added that mechanisms are in order to identify knowledge and certify skills and competencies acquired by 3.8 million learners in Kenya through the informal sector. Principal Secretary for the State Department of Technical and Vocational Training College, Esther Mworia, said TVETs have become the centers of assessment for foreign jobs, encouraging youth to take advantage of such opportunities to secure jobs abroad, where there is a high demand for a workforce, thus tackling the increasing unemployment in Kenya.
‘Yesterday, we were in Kiambu National Polytechnic, where over 700 skilled youth were recruited for foreign jobs. The government is taking pragmatic care of people going to work abroad. I want to urge youths to take advantage of working outside Kenya,’ said Mworia. She called on youths to embrace working in foreign countries with numerous opportunities that are limited in Kenya.