Jwan: We’ll turn around technical training

When Martin Mwaura sat his first paper in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in November last year, he said a silent prayer, seeking heavenly blessings to make the cut for university education and get enrolled for a law degree.

But when the examination results were announced slightly a month later, Mwaura had only scored a C, which locked him out of university admission whose minimum requirement is C+.

Like 563,544 other candidates out of 689,007 who sat the exam, Mwaura’s options were limited. He had either to end his formal learning there and join the world of unskilled labour, get into crime or join one of the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutes.  He considered himself unlucky and doomed to a life of limited opportunities and possibilities. In his cohort, only 125,463 candidates would pocket the much sought-after university admission letter.

Last June, when the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) placed Form Four leavers to universities and other tertiary institutions, Mwaura was slotted to join Kabete National Polytechnic for a diploma in supplies chain management.

Though he had come to terms with the fact that he would not be joining university, getting enrolled to a TVET was uninspiring, disenchanting and carried all the hallmarks of failure.

TVET colleges

Mwaura’s perception of TVET colleges as second-rate, home for losers and dull embodies Kenyans’ national psyche.

Hobbled by a gripping tutor shortage of about 4,500, huge under enrolment, lack of a vibrant campus life and financial instability, the institutions easily reinforce the negative perception they carry.

Yet, Dr Julius Jwan, the Principal Secretary for Vocational and Technical Training is confident the problems afflicting the colleges are only teething and that by next year, the colleges will be as much sought after as universities, if not more.

“When I joined TVET Department, I first noticed that there was no clear framework or strategic plan on what the sector is all about and where it is headed and this became an urgent priority,’’ says Dr Jwan who took over the TVET docket in February from the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development where he was chief executive.

He acknowledges that despite the billions of shillings that have been spent on upgrading infrastructure, buying equipment building new colleges, the sector still operates far below par.

 Yet the sector is far larger than the university division in its sheer size, the number of colleges, enrolment capacity, staffing, asset base and investment.

With 11 national polytechnics, 933 vocational and technical colleges and 1,247 vocational centres, the 74 universities pale in comparison.

This year alone, out of 689,007 candidates who sat KCSE last year, universities have only admitted 125,463 students while the rest will join TVET.

Government-sponsored students

According to KUCCPS, universities declared a capacity for 145,129 Government-sponsored students while TVET colleges declared 276,163. After the placement process 88,724 students were enrolled in TVET institutes, 53,726 of whom will study for diplomas, 29,112 for craft certificates and 5,886 for artisan certificate courses.

“With these kind of figures, it is clear where the country’s priorities should be with regard to securing the future of the youth, who can’t go to university and don’t need to, in order to have a meaningful life full of possibilities after formal school,” says Dr Jwan.

He adds that the department has teamed up with Mastercard Foundation to create a workforce blueprint that will provide a clear pathway for the learners to the end, link the training to the industry and bring on board other government agencies to harmonise the training process.

“We need to train with the industry to ensure there are no skills gap and that the learners don’t require further on-the-job lessons once they graduate. The blueprint will also clear the way for credit transfers to the university,” he says.

And in what must be good news for artisans and apprentices in the Jua Kali sector, the sector will soon be awarding certificates to individuals who display exemplary skills in their products without having had any formal schooling.

Dr Jwan’s transformative agenda will certainly not be the silver bullet that could transform the moribund colleges into the robust, productive and innovative institutions they are envisaged to be.

Some have brand new equipment worth millions of shillings lying idle simply because of minor problems such as inappropriate electricity connections or lack of qualified trainers to put them into good use.

There are those with state-of-the-art lathe machines for mechanical engineering, large scale farm equipment and agriculture machinery and hundreds of acres of land to boot, all lying desolate and virgin.

Yet there are those like the Rift Valley Technical Training Institute, which has won several international awards for delivery of Tvet curriculum and a more than Sh100 million for research and innovation. The institute has a garage which is open to the public for car maintenance and repairs. It has also come in handy recently by making beds for covid-19 patients. Kiambu Institute of Science and Technology also makes bread and cakes which it sells and consumes in addition to furniture.

Dr Jwan attributes the lethargy of a majority of colleges on poor leadership.

“The principals have been socialised to work like mere headteachers yet they should operate like chief executives with proper governance structures since they are in charge of huge assets. They ought to be managed better than they are with complete and well-staffed human resource and accounting departments,” says Dr Jwan, adding that his department is working to overhaul the leadership structure in all the institutes.

Poor perception

On the poor perception of the colleges by Kenyans, Dr Jwan says the sector has reached out to the Kenya Secondary School Heads Association to begin enlightening students on the possibilities and opportunities that abound in TVET institutions.

Currently public TVET colleges have an enrolment of 278,250 against a capacity of 350,000 and a tutor shortage of about 4,500, which Dr Jwan said will be “significantly reduced in two years.”

He says plans are on course to transform the Kenya Technical Trainers College into the premier college for pedagogy and training to tackle the problem of having tutors who are qualified in their disciplines but lack teaching skills.

Still, as the basic education and university sectors struggle with online teaching and learning in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, Tvets are starting from zero due to lack of digital infrastructure, ICT-trained staff and gadgets for learners.

“We are however developing online content for soft skills because most of our courses are technical,” he says.