TVET Authority today hosted a 15-member delegation from Tanzania, which is in the country to benchmark on higher education financing.
The delegation is drawn from the Tanzania Ministry of Education, the Higher Education Students’ Loans Board (HESLB) and the Association of Africa Higher Education Financing Agencies (AAHEFA)
Led by the (HESLB) Executive Director Abdul-Razak Badru, the delegation aims at identifying the methodology; the existing gaps in the financing of higher education in the country and the cross-cutting challenges facing higher education financing in Kenya. This includes understanding the mandate and roles of the TVET Authority within the TVET ecosystem in Kenya.
TVETA’s Director of Accreditation and Outreach Services Fred Oanda informed the team the role the Authority has performed since its inception. He underpinned the great impact the TVET subsector has had in the country, mainly through massive interventions by TVET Authority to create relevance and standards in TVET. In return, this has lowered the employability odds of TVET graduates.
He added that, despite the long-term negative perception that has been attached to TVET education, there has been a paradigm shift in recent years through the awareness campaigns that have been carried out by the Authority and other stakeholders.
Oanda observed that TVET has been facing some cross-cutting challenges especially due to inadequate capitation of TVET Students. However, he appreciated the government for great interventions such as equipping TVET centres adequately and financing TVET students through the HELB loan product. He underscored that the enrolment to TVET institutions has been steadily increasing, thanks to the massive rebranding that has been done by the government.
He informed the delegation that the government is keen to ensure that all TVET institutions go digital, through the ongoing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) programme. The program is part of the government’s efforts to drive the digital sector forward and has already deployed 17 VDIs Labs at Technical Vocational Training Institutions (TVETs) across the country. Each institution will have 100 Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), reliable power, security, and program coordinators provided by Konza Technopolis.
The delegation was keen to understand the collaborations with foreign agencies that have driven the transformation of the TVET sector in Kenya.
The Technical Assistant to the TVETA Director General Mr Andrew Too told the team that TVETA has entered into numerous Memorandum of Understanding with international development partners such as the Governments of South Korea, Germany, the World Bank, the International Labour Organization, Commonwealth of Learning (COL), among others.
He said that these arrangements have come in handy as they have earned scores of trainers and trainees an opportunity to benefit from exchange programmes, attachment and internships overseas.
Before visiting TVETA, the delegation has been to Higher Education Loans Board(HELB) and is expected to visit other stakeholders within the scope of financing and management of higher education in Kenya.
