The Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service has completed the placement of 2020 KCSE candidates who qualified to join universities and diploma technical colleges.
This marks the beginning of their higher education, which is likely to shape their careers.
However, it is unfortunate that in Kenya, a degree is seen as the key to a formal office job leaving many graduates disappointed.
Many still look down upon technical colleges that offer hands-on courses like building technology, plumbing, electrical works and other much-needed skills for a growing economy.
Kenya needs to emulate Singapore and embrace industrialisation as the key driver for growth.
To achieve this, the youth should be encouraged to take up technical courses that offer self-employment or better employment prospects.
Graduates with job-specific skills have a higher potential of being more productive and more equipped to execute tasks for which they have been trained.
According to the National Industrial Training Authority, Kenya’s grand development projects require 30,000 technologists, 40,000 technicians, and at least 90,000 craftsmen. Currently, the country is producing only a quarter of these annually.
The country has invested heavily in technical and vocational institutions but the allure of a degree makes many shun them.
Singapore has become one of the world’s trailblazing economies and top investor destinations with manufacturing as the fulcrum of its economic growth.
Skilled manpower in various sectors still remains a major drawback for various industries in Kenya forcing them to bring in foreign labour.
Kenya's industrial revolution will not be driven by degree holders only but by people with hands-on skills to take on the various manufacturing tasks.
It is for this reason that the youth must be encouraged to enrol in technical and vocational colleges.
Quote of the Day: “Never let anyone shame you into doing anything you don’t choose to do. Keep your identity.”
Jacqueline Susann
The American author was born on August 20, 1918
