Base Titanium senior official nominated for top Africa award

Kwale-based mining firm, Base Titanium’s senior official Ms Joan Kago is Africa’s 2018 nominee for the Micheal Kelly Outstanding Student Award.

Ms Kago, who is the Systems and External Development Training Officer at Base Titanium will fly to UK to attend the Chartered Institute of Personnel Development (CIPD) People Management Awards gala to be held on September 25.

In an interview, Ms Kago said she undertook an online CIPD course in Learning and Development intermediate level 5 from March 2016 to August 2017 where she passed all her units.

“I presented my submission on running a successful graduate trainee program entitled Skill Transfer for the Youth which I defended before the judging panel on July 4,” she said.

“My training has helped me moot an inclusive strategy at my workplace where incoming graduate-trainees are assimilated into a practical programme aligned to their theoretical academic training.”

Ms Kago said Base Titanium was in close conversation with Technical University of Mombasa on formulation of relevant programme that reflects the various industrial processes at Base Titanium.

“A conducive environment is needed to facilitate establishment of a working and viable industrial-academic link. Such a programme will reduce youth apathy who feel wasted when they undertake courses that have no application in the workplace,” she said.

Kenyan industries have lamented for decades over poor quality of graduates joining industry with individual companies incur ringextra costs to retrain the graduates to suit various roles.

This has motivated a national conversation over the need for the academia at all levels of training to engage industry to formulate a relevant market-oriented curriculum.

The manufacturing sector has also urged the government to urgently review technical curriculum for various courses as well as procure new and modern equipment for training plant operators as companies have since acquired computer operated machinery.

This has seen industries hire expatriates to retrain plant operators as local industries lack machinery and tutors for training on maintenance and use of modern machinery.