The government will offer certificates to people with technical skills but lack academic papers, Principal Secretary for Technical and Vocational Education Training  Dr Esther Mworia said yesterday.

The move, Mworia (pictured) notes, will help the artisans get jobs in Government or private institutions, irrespective of their educational backgrounds.

Officials from the department, she added, will soon assess the self-trained artisans, commonly known as “fundis” to enable them access the formal job market. “There are very many qualified people in the Jua Kali (informal) sector but lack certificates. We are telling them to walk into our institutions and will be assessed by our experts along with external assessors,

“It does not matter whether one answers questions in their mother tongue, so long as they have the skills they will get certification without having to go back to class,” the PS said.

Dr Mworia observed that the government policy is aiming to promote artisan jobs where thousands of young people have opportunities to earn livelihoods through the bottom-up approach.

The PS, accompanied by Thika Town MP Alice Ng’ang’a, spoke during graduation of over 3,000 trainees at the Thika Technical Training Institute who attained diplomas and certificates in various technical fields including electrical engineering, mechanics, welding and plumbing among others.