Bolster TVET colleges to drive tech jobs for youth

One of the fascinating things about the robotics department at Mathioya Technical and Vocational Training College is the ability of the youthful students to come up with technological innovations and prototypes that have the potential to be scaled successfully. The only missing link holding them back is the lack of money to turn their prototypes into products.

Their innovations, however, are testament to the creativity in young people, including those who score low grades in national examinations such as the KCSE. According to the latest data from KNEC, a staggering 75 percent of the candidates who sat the exam last year scored C and below. In all, those were 712,537 candidates.

Whereas this number indicts both KNEC and the Teachers Service Commission (their employees are responsible for teaching and preparing candidates for exams), we as Kenyans have the option of either bemoaning the situation or looking for ways to turn the challenge into an opportunity.

One way of doing the latter is by strengthening Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET) colleges and institutes, such as Mathioya, so that they can absorb this large number of youths and prepare them for the job market. Failure to do so will amount to a dereliction of our duty to future generations, bearing in mind that the prospect of personal financial freedom gets diminished among people without employable skills. And this will be a ticking time bomb that will explode in the next five to 10 years unless we take remedial action now.

Last year, the International Labour Organisation published its World Employment and Social Outlook, in which it noted that in 2024, about 402 million individuals globally will be without a job but seeking employment. This includes 183 million people officially counted as unemployed.

We have a choice as a country to act now and ensure that Kenyan youths do not fall into this unemployment — and poverty — trap for life. The one chance we have of doing this right is by ensuring they register for technical training in areas such as automotive engineering, robotics, business management, fashion and beauty and others as the need arises. This way, we will prepare them for the world of work while equipping them with the right tech skills that they will need in an increasingly digital professional and social world.

According to the World Economic Forum (WEF), the next five years will see major changes in the world of work, driven mainly by technological change and demographic shifts, among other factors. For Kenya, these two are critical as more young people turn the digital space into a marketplace and source of revenue and as the youth bulge continues to grow. Let us not forget that only about six percent of Kenyans are above the age of 60, meaning that the other 94 percent are expected to be digitally savvy, meaning they need digital skills for both work and life.

In its 2025 “Future of Jobs Report”, WEF notes that 170 million jobs will be created between this year and 2035. In the same period, 92 million roles will be displaced or cease to exist altogether.

“Demand for roles driven by technological advancements such as artificial intelligence is quickly increasing,” the report says, making it plain for policymakers to see that this is where we should be laying emphasis when it comes to technical training. Other sub-sectors expected to grow over the next 10 years are for farm and agricultural workers (where Kenya already has a head-start), delivery services drivers (due to increasing digital shopping) and software and applications developers, just to mention a few.

Conversely, jobs for cashiers, administrative assistants, caretakers/housekeepers, printing and related trades and accounting/bookkeeping are among those expected to decline in demand over time. This is because applications and gadgets for carrying out such tasks are already replacing humans.

So we go back to the original and all-important question: With so many young, a majority of whom are not joining university, are we going to allow them to vegetate in villages and slums or do we have the foresight to expand TVETs and ensure that all these people become human resources rather than a menace to society? That is our call.

— The writer is the Editor-in-Chief of the Nairobi Law Monthly and Nairobi Business Monthly; Mbugua@nairobilawmonthly.com