Elgeyo Marakwet Governor Wisley Rotich has called on youth graduating from vocational training centres to use the skills acquired to start cottage industries which will not only offer them self-employment but also enable them to employ others.
Noting that the acquisition of skills was the only way to empower people through industrialisation, the governor called on the youth to use their skills to make basic products like bread, soap and others which can be sold within the county and outside.
Speaking during the graduation of 800 VTC graduates under the tujiajiri programme sponsored by Kenya Commercial Bank and the county at the Iten sports ground, the governor said by producing locally, they will be creating jobs and improving the economy of the county.
Rotich called on the graduands to maintain high discipline and honesty, create networks among themselves and use social media to advertise and market their skills.
“If you have trained as a mason, whenever you are called upon to construct a house, tell the owner you also have a plumber, electrician, painter and any other skill required. That way, you will have created jobs for one another,” he said.
He regretted that some youths were using social media negatively to abuse leaders and other people yet it was a powerful tool to advertise one’s business not only within the county but also nationally.
Speaking during the same occasion, the KCB Chief of Party, Bernard Barasa, said the number of beneficiaries had risen from 500 last year to 800 this year, saying the bank, through the KCB Foundation, was committed to addressing the challenge of unemployment and underemployment in the country through targeting youth at the grassroots through VTCs.
He said the Tujiajiri programme has so far trained 35,000 youth, supported the creation of 150,000 jobs, disbursed millions in loans to MSMEs and distributed over 2,000 business startup tool kits.
“By focusing on enterprise development across key economic sectors, the programme aims at unlocking sustainable income-generating opportunities and catalyze the creation of thousands of jobs across the country,” he said.
The acting CEC in charge of Education, Edwin Kibor, said while the county so far has 18 VTCs and is planning to construct two more to cover all the 20 wards in the county, they face a challenge of shortage of equipment and staff.
He therefore called on the county to allocate more funds for VTCs and ensure that they are ring-fenced in a bid to ensure that the funds are used to improve the institutions, saying without the equipment, they cannot offer the necessary skills.
“We are also appealing for funds to hire more instructors because in our VTCs the ratio of an instructor to a student stands at 1:50 against the national ratio of 1:20,” he said.
The chair of the Sports and Youth Affairs Committee, Gilbert Ngetich, said for now the county should concentrate on fully equipping the existing VCTs instead of constructing new ones.
He called for the construction of stalls where the VTC graduates can set up their businesses while the county benefits from getting revenue through the rent.
By Alice Wanjiru
