By S, KNA
The Principal Secretary in the State Department for Labour and Skills Development, Shadrack Mwadime, has announced the commencement of a nationwide screening and certification exercise under the Recognition of Prior Learning component of the National Youth Opportunities towards Advancement (NYOTA) programme, targeting 20,000 youth with informally acquired skills.
Speaking at Uhuru na Kazi Building in Mombasa County, PS Mwadime said the initiative aims to certify skills acquired informally, ensuring no young person is left behind due to lack of formal education.
“We are here to appraise Kenyans concerning a programme that is ongoing, which is to their advantage in terms of opening up opportunities not only for employment within the country and also outside the country, but also in terms of building the capacity of their enterprises,” PS Mwadime stated.
The RPL program forms the third pillar of NYOTA, complementing business development grants of Sh50,000 distributed in two phases and a job experience component that places youth in enterprises for six months to one year.
The certification process will enable beneficiaries to access employment opportunities both locally and internationally, with the government already engaging foreign countries to absorb RPL graduates.
Mwadime revealed that the program received 68,000 applications after President William Ruto extended the application period to September last year. The initial target was 40,000 applicants, but an additional 28,000 applications were received following the extension.
The National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), coordinating the RPL initiative, has sent bulk SMS messages in collaboration with Safaricom to all applicants, providing specific details on screening locations and dates.
The awareness and screening exercise will take place across all 47 counties from tomorrow, Tuesday, January 27, and run until Saturday, January 31, across all 47 counties at various Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) centers, including one in every constituency.
Applicants will submit their portfolio of evidence between February 2 and 6, providing pictorial or other forms of documentation to verify their skills. Summative evaluations, including oral and written examinations, will follow, with results released on February 18.
Transcript distribution is scheduled for February 23, 2026, after which certificate printing will commence.
The Principal Secretary emphasized that the screening will run from 8am until evening to accommodate all applicants, cautioning youth against paying any fees as the service is entirely free.
NITA has been allocated Sh229 million to implement the certification exercise, which will operate through the State Department’s website and NITA’s online platform where detailed schedules are published.
Mwadime noted that certification will continue beyond the current World Bank-supported program, as skills recognition falls under NITA’s core mandate.
