The new Kenya Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (KCATS) policy will significantly benefit employers and industries by ensuring that qualifications awarded by learning institutions are standardized and meet high-quality standards, the state has assured.
The State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Principal Secretary Dr. Esther Muoria explained that KCATS policy will offer a platform for employers to collaborate with educational institutions, allowing them to influence curriculum development to better meet industry needs.
“The system will systematically validate, recognize, and transfer prior learning achievements, or accumulated credits towards a qualification, supporting lifelong learning,” she elaborated.
The PS further said that KCATS facilitates student mobility across institutions, programs, borders, and qualification levels and supports lifelong learning initiatives.
Speaking at the Rift Valley National Polytechnic (RVNP), where she presided over the graduation of 3,8oo students, Dr. Mworia explained that the Kenya Credit Accumulation and Transfer policy framework brings the much-needed clarity to Kenya’s increasingly diverse qualifications ecosystem.
In line with regional and continental education harmonization efforts, such as UNESCO’s Addis Convention on the recognition of degrees and certificates (2014), the PS said that Kenya Credit Accumulation and Transfer (CAT) system was a critical tool for quantifying and validating qualifications, adding that it ensures that Kenyan qualifications are internationally comparable and compatible, enhancing the global recognition of Kenyan degrees.
Dr. Mworia observed that the system promotes academic mobility, allowing students to transfer credits between institutions, ultimately reducing the time and cost required to complete a degree.
The KCATS policy, which was developed by the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) in collaboration with stakeholders in the education, training, and labor sectors, is expected to catalyze seamless mobility and inspire a new era of holistic education and training in Kenya.
This is a systematic way of validating, recognizing and transferring prior learning achievements, or accumulated credits towards attainment of a qualification and Lifelong learning.
Dr. Muoria, who was flanked by RVNP Chief Principal, Sammy Chemoiwa stated that the policy ensured that qualifications from Kenyan institutions were comparable and compatible with international standards, enhancing the global recognition and credibility of Kenyan degrees.
She pointed out that the government was assessing and aligning the skills of Kenyans with the demands of both the local and international job markets, aimed at ensuring the Kenyan curriculum remained relevant and responsive to the evolving needs of various industries.
The PS indicated that the fast-evolving trends in technology and industrial revolution necessitated Kenyan Technical Vocational Education Training Institutes (TVETs) and polytechnics to revise, rescale and remodify their training programs to align them with market driven skills required for industrialization.
While noting that the TVET Act 2013 provided for continuous development, where teachers are expected to retrain, to be able to retrain the students, Dr. Muoria stated that aligning training with industrial needs will have a ripple effect on the economy because businesses were likely to expand and create new jobs if they were able to find the talents they needed.
She argued that the skills acquired through TVETs and polytechnics could provide solutions to society, improve on national development, food security and other spheres of life, with technical institutions expected to produce research papers considering the skills required in the future and the labour market trends.
Dr. Muoria stated that a resolution by the United Nations General Assembly to make 2016-2025 a Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (IDDA III) had opened a new chapter for Industrial progression in the region.
She added that in the world over, the labour market was transiting from theoretical expertise to practical-based skills, adding that a growing number of Kenyans with good academic qualifications were unemployed because of a mismatch of skills and career choices.
The PS noted that though the world was struggling with youth unemployment, it was also experiencing a skills shortage, and affirmed that skills’ development was crucial for the country to prosper in the rapidly changing world.
“Skills development and transformation is crucial for Kenya’s economic growth and development. It is a key driver for employability, poverty eradication, sustained social and economic growth and cohesion,” stated the PS.
She went on to say that the government had recognized that skills development was a vital avenue for the country’s growth and had prioritized it in its development agenda, adding that the government was now focusing on predicting how the need for skills would change and the preparedness to be responsive.
The PS said the state was ensuring that there was coordination between training and industrial development and was determined to put a stop to the mismatch between the skills the students graduate with and industry needs.
“We are equipping our learners with capacities to anticipate and be aware of labour market dynamics,” Dr. Muoria added.
She said the skills mismatch was a result of weak linkage between education and industry leading to unemployment, which disproportionately affects the youths, who account for 75 percent of the current national population of around 50 million people.
By Esther Mwangi & Dennis Rasto
