The government is working on a new curriculum in which TVET training will be 70 per cent skills and 30 per cent theory, TVET PS Esther Muoria has said.
“I have been challenged to provide skilled youths. It’s the TVETs principals and trainers who will produce skilled youth and not me but I will work with them to achieve that,” she said.
Muoria spoke at Machakos Technical Training Institute for the Blind on Wednesday.
The PS had joined officials from Toyota Kenya Foundation, led by manager Florence Suji. The foundation donated training equipment worth more than Sh3 million to the institution.
Machakos Deputy Governor Francis Mwangangi attended the event.
Muoria said the curriculum has to be reconstructed to equip the trainees with the necessary skills in their areas of specialisation.
"We have a lot of people from universities who can’t do what they have studied even after graduating," she said.
Muoria said the governing policy guidelines in TVET also aim to promote access for persons with special needs.
“These include differently abled sisters, brothers and children. We want to equip them with knowledge and skills. This will enable our differently enabled trainees to participate in the labour market,” Muoria said.
She said the government has set up four technical training institutions for learners with special needs in the country.
They are Machakos TTI for the Blind, Karen TTI for the Deaf, Sikri Technical and Vocational College for Deaf and Blind and St Joseph Technical Institute for the Deaf.
Muoria said data indicates that cumulatively, more than 2,500 learners had been enrolled in the institutions by the end of 2020.
She said the department was aware that special needs institutions do not have the capacity to admit all eligible students to promote inclusive training in TVETs.
“This plan includes adapting TVET infrastructure to make it differently-abled-friendly by providing sanitary facilities to female students,” she said.
The PS said less than four per cent of the student population in TVET institutions have special needs.
Muoria said there is a need to expand infrastructure, review curriculum, build trainers’ capacities, increase funding and implement affirmative action to support students living with disabilities.
“I note with satisfaction that Machakos TTI for the Blind accommodates trainees with different levels of disabilities ranging from totally blind, low vision, and a certain percentage of full sighted students,” she said.
Muoria said the institution admits trainees from the age of 16 to over 50 years.
Suji said Toyota Kenya Foundation’s activities were anchored on the SDGs. She said the partnership they have with the institution supports four of the SDGs.
She said the foundation has offered 26 scholarships to visually impaired students at the institution and donated assorted science laboratory equipment and assistive devices worth Sh1 million.
“To this date, Toyota Kenya Foundation has spent Sh3,766,070 to support 135 students with scholarships from Machakos TTI for the Blind. In 2019, we offered donations of assistive devices worth Sh780,000 and entrepreneurship training for 100 students,” Suji said.
She read the foundation chairman Ambassador Dennis Awori’s speech.
