2. This presentation shall address the following Points
1. The Development of TVET in Kenya
2. The TVET Legal Framework
3. Skills Mismatch
4. The Dual Vocational Training System – What is it?
5. Kenya Dual Vocational Training System and its Demise
6. Challenges that would face the re-introduction of the
Dual System
7. Way Forward: How can the expected challenges be
addressed
3. The Development of TVET in Kenya
• The period from political independence in 1963 to 1985 witnessed rapid change in
the development of TVET in Kenya.
• The new government wanted to put in place a strong economic base but was limited
by available qualified technical skills.
• Several post-independence commissions on education were appointed at various
times to review the education system.
• They included the Kenya Education Report (Ominde Report 1964),
• The National Commission on Educational Objectives and Policies (Gachathi Report,
1976) and
• The Commission on the Establishment of the Second University (Mackay Report
1981).
• The most recent report was tabled this year (June 2023) by the Presidential Working
Party on Education Reform (PWPER).
4. The Development of TVET in Kenya Cont…
The reports presented far reaching recommendations on education and training
including:
• Opening up TVET to a wider population through provisions of more institutions
introduction of technical secondary schools
• Curriculum revision to make TVET more relevant; with more emphasis on practical
subjects.
• The Mackay commission (1981) report, came at a time when the country was facing
severe youth unemployment,
• TVET was thus viewed as the solution hence vocationalization of the curriculum in
primary and secondary education. Graduates terminating at each cycle were expected
to secure employment or be self-employed.
• In the latest PWPER report emphasis has been placed on making TVET curriculum
more industry driven hence the focus on Competency Based Education and Training
(CBET).
5. Legal Framework
• Kenya Constitution in 2010. The constitution mandates the creation of a technical
college in every constituency in the country. TVET colleges have grown from about
40 to over 250 since. This number still growing
• Improvement of access to TVET across the country leading to a growth in enrolment
from about 60,000 in 2010 to about half a million currently.
• TVET Act No 29 of 2013: Proposed three institutions with two already established.
TVET Authority (TVETA) was established to coordinate and regulate training
including accreditation of institutions;
• TVET Curriculum Development Assessment and Certification Council (CDACC);
• TVET Fund was yet to be formally inaugurated but might have been over taken by the
recommendations in the PWPER on a funding model for university education and
TVET.
6. Legal Framework Cont…
• The purpose of all this transformation is to improve the quality of training and
ensure that trainees are able to manifest appropriate skills in their areas of expertise.
• To further entrench the concept of providing labour market skills, the government
has introduced the Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) model.
• Under CBET, CDACC is required to involve industry in TVET curriculum
development and assessment to ensure graduates have skills that meet industry
standards.
• The government has now issued a directive that from September 2023 all TVET
institutions must start to implement CBET curriculum across all its courses.
7. Skills Mismatch
• Graduates from various levels of education and training deemed to be inadequately
skilled for jobs in the labour market.
• This notion is particularly relevant in TVET where application skills is quite
essential.
• Globally several factors have led to this state of affairs. One of the most critical is
the rapidly changing technological innovations.
• To counter this evolving issue, lifelong learning has been encouraged and given
emphasis in Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 4 on education and
training.
8. Skills Mismatch Cont..
• In Kenya the problem was slightly different, TVET institutions themselves failed
to ensure that practical skills within the curriculum were given adequate attention.
• This was largely due to the high cost of providing practical courses.
• And because testing did not place any focus on assessment of practical skills,
everyone simply turned a blind eye to this element.
• Hence graduates with good qualifications in examinations that tested cognitive
knowledge only would be found to be woefully unprepared to handle work that is
manifested in their academic certificates.
• This is the malaise that the introduction of CBET and TVET CDACC are
expected to address.
9. The Dual Vocational Training System
• A dual education and training system combines an apprenticeship system within a
company or organization and training in an institution.
• The system is generally associated with Germany but is also practiced in other
countries such as Austria, Switzerland, parts of Belgium and more recently in South
Korea
• Apprenticeship is learning by observation and imitating the master
• It is often done continuously with clear roles of the master and the apprentice
• It is the most natural method of learning
10. The Dual Vocational Training System
• The closest parallel in Kenya today to a dual system is the Apprenticeship system
implemented through National Industrial Training Authority (NITA).
• Supervised by NITA Companies recruit trainees into the apprenticeship programme.
The apprentice signs a contract with NITA and the company, on the terms of training
which last three years.
• The contract provides the stipend to be paid to the trainee and the obligations of both
the trainee and the company.
• In each of the three years the trainee will attend complementary training in one of the
NITA institutions in the country (presently 4).
• The sponsoring company can redeem most of its training cost from the Industrial
Training Levy fund collected by the NITA.
11. The Kenya Dual Apprenticeship Training System
• Until about 1984, Kenya effectively practiced a system of dual vocational and
technical training that was not too different from the German Dual system.
• At independence, the country had only two post-secondary Technical Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) institutions, Kenya Polytechnic (now TUK) and
Mombasa Technical Institute (later Mombasa Polytechnic and now TUM).
• Trainees only joined the two institutions for training after being engaged and
sponsored by a company.
• The objective was to insure that the trainee had a guaranteed place for complementary
practical training when away from their educational institutions.
• In addition it is observed that most companies had in-house training programmes that
provided orientation to newly hired trainees from high schools.
12. The Demise of the Kenya Dual System
•The Kenyan dual system gradually ground to an end around the beginning of the 1980s
•Several factors might have contributed to its demise.
•There was no specific policy that ordered it stopped.
•One clear factor that inadvertently forced its death is the rapid growth of post-
secondary technical institutions. – HITs in the 1970s and 1980s
•This was closely followed by the conversation of technical secondary schools to post-
secondary Technical Training Institutes (TTIs) in 1984 after the introduction of the 8-4-
4 curriculum.
13. The Demise of the Kenya Dual System Cont…
•Within a short period of less than ten years, the country went from having only two post-
secondary TVET institutions to over forty (TTIs + ITs).
•Students now paid their own fees and there was no requirement for industry sponsorship.
•The curriculum was changed and became full time training at the colleges.
•Trainees were now required to complete a three month (one term) industrial attachment
at a suitable industry during their training.
•The attachment was seldom enforced and many students graduated with certificates and
diplomas with no certified industry experience.
14. The Challenges of Reintroducing the Dual Training System
• Recently there have been efforts to introduce the dual training system
eeting the needs of the one term industrial attachment for the TVET students is proving
to be a daunting task.
•Some medium enterprises are taking up to 30 trainees for attachment at a time.. This
strains enterprise resources and the exposure of the trainees to adequate hands-on-
experiences
•A dual system, where a trainee would spend as much as fifty percent of their training
duration with an enterprise, would create a huge problem in terms of industry capacity
to accommodate the large number of trainees enrolled in the TVET institutions.
•Employers in industry are therefore not desperate for a large number of skilled workers
15. Way forward
• The dual system, as applied in Germany or even in the country before the 1980s, is
difficult in the current context.
• The uptake of the youth exiting from all education and training programmes in the
country into formal employment (modern employment sector) is extremely low, with
only 6.0 % of jobs created in 2021 (Economic Survey, 2022).
• To increase the number of on-the-job training opportunities it would be necessary to
include the Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) as potential partners in a dual training
system.
• The SME sector has been growing each year with 81.4 % of the total jobs created
outside of small-scale agriculture and pastoralist activities (Economic Survey, 2022).
• TVET institutions, however, have been reluctant to consider them for attachment for
their students for the relatively short industrial attachment programme and would be
averse to even consider for the dual system.
16. Challenges that would face the Reintroduction TVET dual system in Kenya
• Recently there have been efforts made to introduce the dual training system Kenya
• Meeting the needs of the one term industrial attachment for the TVET students is
proving to be a daunting task.
• Some enterprises are taking up to 30 trainees for attachment at a time.. This strains
enterprise resources and the exposure of the trainees to adequate hands-on-experiences
• A dual system, where a trainee would spend as much as fifty percent of their training
duration with an enterprise, would create a huge problem in terms of industry capacity
to accommodate the large number of trainees enrolled in the TVET institutions.
• Employers in industry are therefore not desperate for a large number of skilled workers
suggesting that they would not be very enthusiastic in signing on to take apprentices in a
dual system of training
