The Principal Secretary in the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education Training (TVET), Dr Esther Muoria has defended the government’s labour export program arguing that it has been instrumental in addressing the unemployment crisis in the country.
Speaking on Tuesday at the Nyeri National Polytechnic, Dr Muoria said that despite the criticism, the government has been able to secure numerous job opportunities for Kenyans abroad.
“A lot of noise has been going on and I want to say as far as I am concerned it is unnecessary noise that we are sending a lot of people to go out there and work. You can work anywhere in this world as long as you have a skill. So yes, young people can go out there and work,” she said.
The government has since 2023 been negotiating with countries to secure job opportunities in various sectors to facilitate the employment of close to 1.76 million unemployed youth in the country. Last year, the Ministry of Labour revealed plans to export at least 1 million Kenyan workers overseas annually as part of a new job creation strategy.
According to Labour Cabinet Secretary, Dr Alfred Mutua, the government was actively making more bilateral labour agreements with other countries to secure job opportunities for Kenyans in the semi-skilled and professional fields.
“To ensure a structured and beneficial approach to labour migration, we are expanding our network of bilateral labour agreements, opening doors for Kenyans to take up semi-skilled and professional roles internationally,” stated Dr Mutua.
However, Dr Muoria revealed that the program was not just focused on exporting labour but, the State had equally realigned its training programs with the global standards in order to attract foreign investors into the country. She said that in order to promoting development, the government will also create a conducive environment to attract investors to set up industries in the country.
“By the time all these industries finish being established in Kenya; we want to tell the industrialists that we have all these skills that are going to babysit your industries. We must move from the business of having money in our country but having expatriates doing the work. We need to have skilled people within the economy so that we are able to keep that money within our economy, “said Dr Muoria.
The PS spoke during the launch of a five-day training workshop for some 266 trainers Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) assessors from the Mount Kenya region. Similar workshops are ongoing at Kenya Coast National Polytechnic and at the Kisumu National Polytechnic where 671 practitioners are participating.
The training is expected to build the capacity of TVET trainers to assess and certify individuals working in the informal sector who possess competencies but lack certification.
Dr Muoria revealed that the government is targeting to increase the total number RPL practitioners in the country from 400 to 7,000 as the country works towards realizing the target of certifying at least 700,000 Jua Kali artisans and players in the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises before the end of the year.
“We have been able to certify not less than 5000 skilled people. Actually on the day of the launch in March 2024, we were able to certify 1000 on that particular day. But we want to fast track and that is why we are training the assessors so that we can fast track the process because the people out there with skills and are not certified are many,” said Dr Muoria.
By Wangari Mwangi and Mary Wamutwa
