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The Use and Implementation of Information and Communications Technology as a subsector of TVET in Kenya

The author has mentioned in the first blog post that the more access to and the higher quality of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), the more the rate of youth unemployment in Kenya can be controlled and reduced; and that as a result, Kenyan government has paid great attention to provide more opportunities for the students to get access to TVET courses of high quality. In this blog post, the author will go deeper into the use and implementation of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as the subsector of  technical and vocational education and training in Kenya.

According to Bingimlas (2009), Information and Communications Technology is defined as groups of technologies providing access to information through telecommunications with a primary focus on communication technologies. This includes the Internet, wireless networks, mobile phones, as well as other communication mediums. As Maina, Kahando, and Maina (2017) point out, ICT is one of the fastest growing economic activities in the world now. Countries that have exploited the potential and the power of ICT have attained significant social and economic development (Nyerere, 2009). To be more specific, Ngure (2013) indicates that ICT can create both the direct jobs of employment in the ICT industries and the indirect ones in the ancillary enterprises enabled by ICT.

Under this trend, Kenya’s ICT industry has also been growing at a promising rate since Kenyan business environment has experienced the positive changes. As a result, the government of Kenya recognizes that ICT plays an important role in its social and economic development. The Kenyan government has encouraged institutions and universities to integrate ICTs in their TVET courses. In addition, the government has proclaimed national ICT policies on the basis of its economic recovery strategy for wealth and employment creation (Maina, Ogalo, and Mwai, 2016).

Ngure (2013) points out that the TVET Authority and Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development have committed themselves to promote access to and relevance of ICTs in TVET courses, with the goal of reflecting the needs of industry and the labor market within Kenya’s nationwide socio-economic development plans and policies. To attain this goal, Maina, Ogalo, and Mwai (2016) indicate that work has been done to ensure that the ICT competence-based skills that are necessary and essential in the labor market are offered by technical and vocational education and trainings. The involvement of ICT stakeholders in the development of the training strategies for the TVET of national skills has also been endeavored. Therefore, it can in particular contribute to the better control and reduction of the rate of youth unemployment. The curriculums have become more and more flexible and up-to-date to meet the ICT technological changes and demands in the world of work.

Kenya Science Campus-University of Nairobi

Maina, Kahando, and Maina (2017) gives an example that Chepkoilel University College of Moi University in Eldoret, Kenya, integrates ICTs in their TVET programs in School of Education, School of Agriculture, School of Business and Economics, and School of Science, aiming to strengthen students’ skills and employability concerned. What is more, as TVET institutions in Kenya, Michuki and Thika Technical Training Institute in Murang’a and Kiambu County have emphasized the importance of the pedagogical readiness on the effective integration of ICTs.

Maina, Ogalo, and Mwai (2016) suggest that currently the ICT resources are used for developing and improving lecturers’ own knowledge and teaching students about computer and software appliance. To achieve greater positive impacts on controlling and reducing the rate of youth unemployment in Kenya, the use of ICTs in TVET institutions should maintain a balance between research and accessing information and tutoring students in computer literacy and information and communication science. Therefore, the integration of ICTs with TVET can be more effective and of higher quality, which can definitely lead to less inflexible and outdated TVET curriculums; and less mismatch between the skills learned and the skills demanded by industries and the labor market.

TechAtLast.com

Bingimlas (2009) also recommends that Board of Management of TVET institutions in Kenya had better recruit ICT competent teachers with an assessment of the technological proficiency in advance, in order to make sure that teachers are competent to facilitate ICT Integration in TVET. Moreover, teachers should be encouraged to regularly improve their skill-sets to ICT facilities for the sake of integrating the new tools and methodologies in relevant curriculums in an efficient way. Now, more and more TVET institutions and universities have internal ICT training programs, anchored in their ICT strategic plan, for both ICT staff members and students.

 

References

Bingimlas, K. A. (2009). Barriers to the successful integration of ICT in teaching and learning

environments: A review of the literature. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science &

Technology Education, 5(3), 235-245.

Maina, T. M., Kahando, D. M., & Maina, C. M. (2017). Curriculum Content Relevancy in

Integration of ICTs in Kenya TVET Institutions in Readiness to Industry Needs.

International Journal of Secondary Education, 4(6), 58-64.

Maina, T. M., Ogalo, J., & Mwai, N. (2016). The Pedagogical Readiness of Instructors towards

Achieving Integration of ICT’s in TVET Institutions in Kenya. Research in Pedagogy,

6(1), 55-65.

Ngure, S. W. (2013). Stakeholders’ perceptions of technical, vocational education and

training :the case of Kenyan micro and small enterprises in the motor vehicle service and

repair industry. Retrieved from https://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/597

Nyerere, J. (2009). Technical, industrial & vocational education and training (TVET) sector

mapping in Kenya [PPT]. Www.slideplayer.com.

 

Tackling Youth Unemployment with Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Kenya

According to Escudero & Mourelo (2014), Kenya is categorized into the leading economy group in sub-Saharan Africa. Kenya’s economy has increased at an average rate of over 5% over the past several decades. However, with such stable and successful economic growth, much work still needs to be done for the sake of qualifying its ever-increasing youth population to meet the requirement of employers. To be more specific, there is a high youth unemployment rate in Kenya because of insufficient qualified workers. Muiya (2014) points out that the reason falls on not enough or mismatched Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) satisfying the requirement for the actual demand in labor market. It should be easier for companies to find suitable candidates to fill job vacancies if various and adequate TVET courses are offered meeting the requirements of different sectors.

Maronga, Maroria, & Nyikal (2015) provide a brief description of Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET) as the investment in concerned skills relevant to labor market, usually in a larger scope of strategies of promoting economic competitiveness, enabling the development of technical skills with an understanding of what matters in achieving employment in certain occupations. Zepeda, Leigh, Ndirangu, Omollo, & Wainaina (2013) suggest that the more access to and higher quality of TVET, the more vital role it will play in tackling youth unemployment in Kenya. The fact is that even those young Kenyans receive higher levels of education, the majority of them still lack the fundamental cognitive and technical skills to meet the demand of employers and therefore find it difficult to find decent jobs or become self-employed (Elder & Rosas, 2015). Taking this circumstance into consideration, Muiya (2014) claims that appropriate TVET can provide a higher return than merely general education or secondary education with a specific emphasis on providing and training participants in regard to particular work-relevant skills.

Harry (2014) points out that youth unemployment is becoming an increasingly critical issue in Kenya. Startling data shows that 40% of young Kenyans rarely had education, 34% of the youth had education at the elementary level, 16% had secondary education and only 10% had TVET or higher education. Under this situation, the Kenyan economy leaves almost 70% of the youth, aged between 15 and 34, under the shadow of unemployment, which makes unemployment in Kenya a youth problem. For instance, in Kenya, it is common that youth unemployment rate is higher than total unemployment rate. Statistics show that in 1999, youth unemployment rate was 5% higher than total unemployment rate; and in 2006, youth unemployment rate was almost 7.5% higher than total unemployment rate (Zepeda et al. 2013).

The Kenyan education system has a pattern of eight years of primary education then four years of secondary education and four years of university education. Unfortunately, as Escudero & Mourelo (2014) indicate, numbers of youths cannot complete school. For those who successfully go to graduate school, however, most of them still lack sufficient expertise to meet the expectations of employers and to facilitate employment. As a result, the Kenyan education system has been blamed for failing to pass suitable and necessary skills and technologies to youths to get them ready for the demanding labor market to achieve employment and self-employment. Therefore, the Kenyan government senses an urgent need to strengthen and increase proportionally successful methods of developing more qualified TVET. In other words, the government is eager to ensure that young people successfully and confidently acquire the foundational and relevant skills and training through TVET that are essential to enter the world of work.

The good news is that the potential and the importance of TVET has been emphasized as a driving force in addressing the issue of youth unemployment in Kenya (Omollo, 2012). Since 2012, a variety of TVET policies have been launched. Also, the Kenyan Parliament adopted the TVET Act in 2013. At the same time, novel government agencies have been established, focusing on improving and reforming the TVET with accompanied responsibility on its coordination and regulation (Harry, 2014). Thanks to all this effort, now, for those who have completed primary school, they have more opportunities to attend TVET in plenty of ways. There are more and more institutions such as Youth Polytechnics, Technical Training Institutes, Institutes of Technology, National Industrial Vocational Centers, secondary schools and universities conducting modified TVET skills and offering TVET certificates (Maronga et al. 2015).

Zepeda et al. (2013) points out that in Kenya, over half of all jobs have a requirement of a medium level qualification, which can be acquired through TVET primarily. It is hoped that with more access to modified TVET meeting the requirements in labor market, the youth unemployment rate in Kenya will decrease at a somewhat slow but stable rate. Youths who have attended technical and vocational education and training courses mostly spend one or two years pursuing different levels of certificate qualification in TVET. Then they are found enrolled in formal and informal employment. Qualifying themselves with a diploma or degree, such group of youth population begin to work in the formal and informal sector, among whom 30.5% are in formal employment, 9.2% in informal employment; 1% are home-maker, 1.3% in other categories (Maronga et al. 2015). Statistics of World Bank (n.d.) show that the youth unemployment rate reached from 22.81% in 2007 to 26.12% in 2012, during which time there were a little access to adequate and sufficient TVET; however, the youth unemployment rate maintains at 26.2% since 2013 instead of constantly increasing, which could be recognized as a piece of good news since the situation does not get worse. We understand that it takes time, and we hope we could see the vision of more access to adequate TVET influencing on reducing youth unemployment rate in Kenya.

References

Elder, S., & Rosas, G. (2015). Global employment trends for youth 2015: Scaling up investments in decent jobs for youth. International Labor Organization.

Escudero, V., & Mourelo, E. L. (2014). Understanding the drivers of the youth labor market in Kenya. In Disadvantaged Workers (pp. 203-228). Springer, Cham.

Harry, L. K. (2014). Kenya Country Report for the 2014 Ministerial Conference on Youth Employment: Policies, Mechanisms and Schemes for Integration of Youth into the Workforce and Job Creation. Abidjan, Côte d‟ Ivoire.

Maronga, E., Maroria, E. A., & Nyikal, E. (2015). A Critical Survey On Enrollment In Youth Polytechnics In Kisii Central District, Kenya. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research4(5), 113-120.

Muiya, B. M. (2014). The Nature, Challenges and Consequences of Urban Youth Unemployment: A Case of Nairobi City, Kenya. Universal journal of educational research2(7), 495-503.

Omollo, J. (2012). Youth Employment in Kenya. Analysis of Labor Market and Policy Interventions.

World Bank. (n.d.). Kenya: Youth unemployment rate from 2007 to 2017. In Statista – The Statistics Portal. Retrieved October 6, 2018, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/812147/youth-unemployment-rate-in-kenya/.

Zepeda, E., Leigh, F., Ndirangu, L., Omollo, J., & Wainaina, S. (2013). Discussion paper: Kenya’s youth employment challenge. NY, NY: UNDP, January.

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