The new competence based education training for technical schools will help boost the country’s GDP, Technical and Vocational Education Training PS Kevit Desai has said.
TVETs started implementing the new curriculum in January.
Through CBET learners will get skills needed in the job market as the curriculum has huge input from industry players, the PS said.
Speaking on phone on Friday, Desai said CBET was informed by the need to bridge the skills gap that forced industries to spend hundreds of millions of shillings to re-train graduates on the job.
“CBET will help address the half-baked graduates problem that has prevented the country from growing as fast as it should, especially in the manufacturing sector,” Desai said.
The PS on Tuesday took principals of various technical training institutions at the Coast through the CBET policy framework at the Kenya Coast National Polytechnic.
Kenya Association of Technical Institutions Coast chairman Stephen Ngome said lack of understanding of what TVETs are among the public has been a major challenge.
This means parents and the youth do not value TVET education.
“People have been rushing for degrees and papers which are actually not developing our industry,” Ngome said.
He is the principal of Ahmed Shahame Mwidani Technical Training Institute in Changamwe, Mombasa.
“There has been a mismatch between graduation and the industry needs,” he said.
PS Desai said Kenya needs to increase levels of productivity, innovation and efficiency primarily through the use of technology.
He said the new curriculum enables the youth to be connected to opportunities throughout the world.
“All of this depends on our ability to train to achieve outcomes of standards which can enable them achieve gainful employment or be self-employed,” he said.
