The Principal Secretary, State Department for Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET), Dr. Esther Thaara Muoria, has praised the Competency Based Education and Training (CBET) implementation, which is currently in its advanced stages, as key to ensuring graduates acquire requisite employment skills to contribute meaningfully to the Kenyan economy.
The PS was speaking when she launched a Fashion and Design workshop at the Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTTI), before she presided over the 14th Graduation of the Institution that saw over 1,800 graduates in various courses transition into the world of work.
She reaffirmed the Government’s unwavering commitment to Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), as a cornerstone of Kenya’s social and economic transformation, because it is through skills that national policy is translated into real productivity, opportunity and shared prosperity.
Dr. Muoria noted that the same commitment now anchors Government investments on access, relevance, quality and equity across TVET.
“On access, enrollment has grown by 139 percent since 2022, reflecting renewed public confidence in TVET as a dignified and market-relevant pathway. Relevance has been strengthened through Competency Based Education and Training (CBET), modular training and industry-led programme design,” said the PS TVET.
She emphasized on quality in the TVET Sector, which is being sharpened through assessment reforms, continuous trainer upskilling, equipment upgrades and strengthened institutional governance.
Additionally, equity has advanced through Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and deliberate outreach to vulnerable youth, persons in correctional facilities, refugees and skilled artisans in the informal economy, affirming that skill has no age, gender, or social boundary.
“RVTTI today will be graduating 39 skilled artisans who have been certified through RPL, even as 65 inmate-artisans drawn from correctional services graduated (in absentia) last week, at THE Kitale National Polytechnic, affirming Kenya Kwanza’s commitment to inclusive opportunity,” she added.
Dr. Muoria indicated that TVET now stands at the very heart of Kenya’s development agenda, as the bridge between education and productivity, learning and enterprise, aspiration and opportunity, noting that the shift to CBET, the roll-out of modularized curricula, the expansion of dual training and the scaling of RPL are not isolated reforms; they represent a deliberate national strategy to ensure Kenyan skills respond directly to real labour market needs, locally and globally.
By Ekuwam Sylvester
