Education institutions have been urged to stop emphasizing university degrees over technical skills.
Vocation and Technical Training PS Margaret Mwakima insisted on the need to balance between theoretical training and imparting technical and vocational skills in accordance to the job market demand.
She said skills imparted by Technical Vocational Educational Training Institutions (TVETs) was critical in propelling Kenya and Africa in general to new industrialisation by 2030.
Speaking during Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology 15th graduation in Nakuru, Mwakima observed that imparting technical skills was also creating opportunities for self-employment.
"Labour market in the world is transiting from theoretical expertise to practical-based skills, this could be the reason why we have thousands of unemployed but well educated Kenyans with university degrees because of a mismatch of skills and the industry demands," she said.
The PS noted that there was an increasing shortage of technicians and artisans who were vital in achieving Kenya Vision 2030.
"An effective Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) system will hugely help in achieving the big four government agenda and Kenya Vision 2030," said Mwakima.
She said the country needed 90,000 technicians and more than 400,000 artisans to cure the current shortage.
"The country might get to a point of importing artisans because of an acute shortage of vocational skills and competencies such as plumbing, electrical installation, welding, brick laying, painting, carpentry, tailoring among others," she lamented.
Mwakima revealed that the government has allocated Sh10.6 billion to expanding TVET training as a way of bridging the gap in the job market.
"By increasing the number of TVETs the government will be transforming Kenya into a manufacturing nation while at the same time empowering the youth to participate in gainful employment," said Mwakima
She said the government's investment in new equipment, modern technologies and infrastructure and qualified training staff was paying off as student enrollments in TVETs had increased to 249,316 in 2021 from 55,945 in 2013.
She attributed the increasing enrolment to capitation grants of Sh30,000 per trainee per year for TVET students and standardisation of the costs of TVET education cost at Sh56,420 annually.
She observed with the aforementioned incentive coupled with improved remuneration for vocational and technical skills, more youths will choose TVETs over universities.
"Unlike before when the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB) served university students only, TVET trainees access the loans to further supplement the cost of training,” she said.
Mwakima said the government had rolled out new technical and vocational courses as it begins to implement the Competence-Based Education and Training (CBET) policy framework.
She added that CBET's main objective was delivering industry responsive skills.
