Despite the millions spent in a bid to equip jobless youth with the necessary skills to gain employment or start businesses, vocational training centres in Nyandarua and Laikipia counties continue to lie idle due to a lack of students.
At Ndaragwa Technical and Vocational College in Nyandarua County, there are only 50 students being trained in fashion and design, electrical and plumbing, entrepreneurship, and hairdressing and beauty.
The institution that opened its doors three years ago has the capacity to enrol over 1,000 trainees, according to the principal, Ms Margaret Muthoni Njenga.
“We have continued to witness low levels of enrolment. This is despite the government subsidising tuition fees and offering student loans through the Higher Education Loans Board [Helb],” Ms Njenga told Nation.
She revealed that the government pays Sh30,000 for every student, with the remaining Sh26, 000 paid by the trainees in three instalments.
“Students then automatically qualify for Helb loans of up to Sh40,000, which is meant to help in clearing the fee balances as well as cater for their upkeep,” added Ms Njenga.
The institution, which is located four kilometres off the Nyahururu-Nyeri highway, has potential for expansion, with nine tutors already deployed.
Local leaders and education stakeholders are now raising the alarm over the low enrolment in technical vocational education and training institutions (Tvets) in the county.
Ndaragwa MP George Gachagua urged local youth to embrace technical courses.
“It is high time that our youth embrace manual labour and stop their obsession with white-collar jobs. Today, a person with technical skills is able to earn much more than the one working in an office,” said the lawmaker during a sensitisation meeting in Kiriita recently.
Kiriita Ward Representative Milka Wanjiru called for a change in attitude, saying, the perception that Tvets were meant for students who had failed their exams was false.
“Our students should not be ashamed of joining Tvets. Technical training institutions are not meant for failure. They give trainees skills and knowledge that allow them to become job creators,” she said, noting with regret that most young people had opted to join the boda boda business instead.
Nyandarua North Deputy County Commissioner Walter Ngaira said low enrolment in Tvets meant that the institutions were not fully utilising their resources and potential.
Through local chiefs, the administrator said, the national government had put in place measures to ensure that more people are enrolled in Tvets.
In neighbouring Laikipia County, where the government five years ago set up two major institutions, only a handful of students have been enrolled.
One of the institutions is in Mouwarak in Laikipia North Constituency while the other is in Marina in Laikipia East.
They were built at a cost of Sh50 million and Sh46.8 million respectively.
Interested students
The two institutions, which have a capacity of enrolling over 500 students each, are equipped with training gear worth over Sh320 million each.
The principals and instructors have been moving from door to door in the villages in search of interested students.
The national government was to build three such institutions in every constituency in the county in a programme that was launched more than four years ago.
At Laikipia North Technical and Vocational College in Mouwarak, only 120 students have been enrolled since it opened its doors.
“This institution was built and supplied with training equipment worth Sh300 million. The equipment uses modern technology but most of them have been lying idle,” said a tutor at the institution.
Construction works at Muhotetu Vocational Training Institute in Laikipia West is currently ongoing but residents have raised concerns regarding the slow pace of the project in Kabage village in Marmanet Ward.
