The plans are underway to upgrade various Vocational Training Centres (VTCs) in the counties to train National Youth Service (NYS) recruits in technical skills at grassroots level.
Moses Kuria, the Cabinet Secretary for Trade, Investment and Industry announced that the identification of the suitable vocational institutions has begun under a partnership between the county administrations and National Government.
The decision to start utilising the vocational facilities at county level was reached as a means of reducing the amount of money used for NYS graduates being enrolled at the various Technical Vocational Training Institutes (TVETs)
According to the CS, more than KSh6billion was being used annually to sponsor NYS graduate to attain technical skills in various TVETs and in the absence of such restructuring, the capitation bill was expected to balloon to more than KSh 30 billion.
County governments, Kuria said had a challenge to fully support the selection of the institutions, some of them which have been idle and ill equipped as the government intends to fully equip them.
At the same time, the institutions would provide expanded and adequate technical skills’ acquisition opportunities for interested artisans and school leavers in the respective counties.
The ministry, the CS said took the equipping and teaching of the technical courses in the vocational facilities seriously and was in consultation with technical and managerial experts from the University of Nairobi to ensure the success of the programme.
Vocational facilities selected to offer the training for NYS graduates will be equipped with state-of-the-art-equipment and adequate workshops.
Addressing guests during the groundbreaking ceremony of the first Huduma Digital Centre in Embu County, the CS said the outfit whose construction would be done under NYS once complete will also host a digital hub.
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Embu County, he said was the first to benefit from such a project adding that this emanated from the fact that the area governor Cecily Mbarire had been hugely proactive in lobbying for launch National Government projects in the county.
The CS said county leadership had expressed their willingness to accommodate the NYS trainees in the various vocation institutions and ministry officials have visited the various locations to identify their suitability.
The CS said that in future all such Jitume Huduma facilities would host free internet connection and incorporate experts from the Government and the private sector to educate Kenyans on technical digital skills to facilitate Kenyans’ get online business and employment.
The Kenya Kwanza government has to date trained more than 20,000 NYS graduates to gain technical skills, majority who were already working under various government construction projects while targeting more than 100,000 such crafts people by the year 2027.
Governor Mbarire thanked the Government for its decision to construct and start the NYS Jitume Huduma facility in the county and challenged young people to pursue skills from the digital hub section of the centres where casual construction and online employment was available.
By Rober Nyagah
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