The number of female students enrolling for technical courses remains very low and they have been encouraged to take up the male-dominated studies in the vocational training colleges.
Vocational and Technical Training deputy director Bukhala Buleni on Friday asked local leaders to encourage the female students not to shy away from technical courses.
"It is worrying that only three female students are graduating in the electrical engineering field while none is graduating in the mechanical course in the class of 18 students. The level of gender parity index in our institutions is poor," Buleni said.
He was speaking in Voi during the Coast Institute of Technology graduation ceremony. He asked the institutions and local leaders to convince many female students to also accept technical jobs.
Technical courses, he said are more marketable compared to other overexploited courses.
"Join technical and vocational training institutions to equip yourselves with key specialised knowledge and skills required to boost the country's industrialisation agenda," Buleni said.
A total of 707 students graduated with Artisan, Certificate, Diploma and Higher Diploma in different fields.
The official said the department was committed to ensuring quality and relevance in courses offered in vocational training colleges. He asked all the colleges to keep a database of graduands and follow up to ensure that they get jobs.
"We shall determine relevance of our courses if we track our alumni students and see whether they are successfully using the acquired skills," he said.
Buleni said the government was working on setting up a vocational training college in every constituency to accommodate the growing number of Form 4 leavers. Each college will be required to enroll a minimum of 600 students annually.
Coast Institute of Technology board chairman Austrine Kitololo asked the ministry to facilitate the completion of a lecture hall that has stalled due to lack of funds.
"We require more workshops for impacting practical skills in learners in line with the Competency-Based Curriculum," Kitololo said.
edited by peter obuya
