The ministry of education has said there is a need to standardize equipment used in training in all technical and vocational training institutions. Technical Education and Vocational Training (TVET) director Meshach Opwora said the quality of trainings in institutions under national government and those under county government has been found to vary affecting standards.
He spoke at Meru National Polytechnic during the dissemination of TVET Quality audit reports for all TVET institutions and vocational training centers under the county governments.
Opwora said trainers in Vocational Training Centers under county governments are very few.
“We have also seen disparities in terms of quality in the training that is done in institutions under national government and the training done in institutions under county government,” Opwora said.
He said that differences between the two is caused by equipping and lack of tutors.
“We have the state-of-the-art equipment in institutions under national government but when you go to institutions under county government there is a challenge,” Opwora said.
He said they are in the process of procuring state of the art equipment to 70 technical vocational colleges across the country.
“We are at the tail end of the procurement process from China and they will be coming by the end of the year. We also have other equipment from our partners the Africa Development Bank and East Africa Skills For Transformation (A World Bank Project),” Opwora said.
TVETA Board Chair of Technical Committee Julius Keter said most institutions are doing well in terms of leadership standards.
“The findings of our report are very promising we are doing well in terms of leadership most institutions have established and are following our standards.”
“To regulate TVET we have to come up with standards so we have standards then we audit the institutions In line with those standards most institutions have improved,” Keter said.
He said that about three to four million who are jobless need to be brought in TVET training to uplift the country out of poverty.
“Our concern is that we have relevant training that if futuristic that captures the spirit of the world of work and to achieve this we need a multisectoral approach,” Keter said.
TVETA Acting director in charge of standards development DR Paul Wanyeki said in the last financial year they did quality audit to 415 TVET institutions across the country.
Wanyeki said it’s the second financial year they are auditing TVET institutions.
“It gives us a good opportunity to engage stakeholder from public and private sector and from national and county governments to get feedback on challenges,” Wanyeki said.
