Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions in East Africa supported by the World Bank-funded East African Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) have recorded a fourfold increase in student enrolment over the past two-and-a-half years.
According to an internal mid-term evaluation of the project, the 16 institutions in Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania have seen student numbers grow from 6,971 students in early 2019 to 30,776 at the end of 2021. The increase was recorded in both long-term and short-term training programmes offered at the project’s TVET institutes.
The audit revealed that the total student enrolment in 16 regional flagship TVET institutes (RFTIs) was more than 100% higher than the overall annual project target of 20,000.
One of the objectives of the project is to boost the traditionally low enrolment of female students in technology and engineering fields. The audit showed that the number of women who enrolled increased from 741 to 5,230 during the evaluation period.
The number of graduates employed within six months after graduating also rose from 47% to 69%, said Professor Gaspard Banyankimbona, executive secretary of the Inter-University Council for East Africa. The findings of the evaluation were announced at a technical advisory meeting in Mombasa.
Support for regional integration
“This project is designed to increase the capacity of TVET institutions to develop highly specialised TVET programmes at diploma and degree levels for the training of technicians and TVET faculty. The focus is also on industry-recognised short-term training, targeting regional priority sectors in transport, energy, manufacturing and ICT,” he said.
This is in addition to the improvement of training facilities through purchasing specialised equipment and building state-of-the-art regional flagship institutes that will sustain enrolment in the long run. The latter is meant to emphasise industry participation in developing curricula and occupational standards for demand-driven programmes, Banyankimbona told University World News.
The project also aims to support and improve regional integration, Banyankimbona said. As a result, the institutes admitted students from across East and Sub-Saharan Africa.
With the financial support of US$293 million from the World Bank over five years, the objective is to support the selected TVET institutes, to develop high-quality specialised content for training technicians, and to develop market-driven, short-term training courses. This includes the construction of training facilities and specialised equipment.
The IUCEA, Banyankimbona said, had developed a five-year strategic plan that seeks to entrench support for TVET institutions in the implementation of the East African community common higher education area.
“This means that harmonisation of TVET qualifications, regional mobility of students and staff in TVET institutions will become key goals of not just the EASTRIP project implementation team but also the whole of IUCEA, including its governing structures,” he added.
TVET education antidote for unemployment
The Acting Director of Technical Education in the Kenyan Ministry of Education, Tom Mulati, said the development of a harmonised regional TVET qualifications framework and occupational standards is a direction the world is taking, and East Africa could not afford to be left out.
World Bank Senior Education Specialist Dr Xiaoyan Liang said critical principles of industry linkage and institutional autonomy are two important pillars that EASTRIP was using to improve the relevance and quality of TVET programmes.
Technical skills and education offered by TVET institutions constitute one of the most viable post-secondary education solutions for youth unemployment in Africa, according to Dr Patrick Mbataru, lecturer in public policy and administration at Kenyatta University.
It arms the youth with practical survival skills that every country also needed for development. Such skills are often lacking in many countries, leaving them with a serious skills gap that works against their development goals.
“Skills offered in TVET institutions are critical to the development of any country. A big economy such as China developed by first retooling their youth, offering the technical skills in the 1970s to set the base for the country’s industrialisation,” Mbataru said.
