PS defends state’s labour export program, citing job opportunities abroad

Wangari Mwangi and Mary Wamutwa-KNA

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 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 if you have skill. So yes, young people can go out there and work,” she said.

Since 2023, the government has 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 it planned to export at least one million Kenyan workers overseas annually as part of a new job creation strategy.

According to Labour Cabinet Secretary, Dr Alfred Mutua, the government is 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,” Dr Mutua stated.

However, Dr Muoria said that the program is not just focused on exporting labour but, the State had equally realigned its training programs with the global standards to attract foreign investors into the country.

She said to promote 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 establishing in Kenya; we want to tell the industrialists that we will have all these skills.

“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 can keep that money within our economy,” Dr Muoria said.   

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 of 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 5,000 skilled people. On the day of the launch in March 2024, we certified 1,000 on that 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 with skills out there and not certified are many,” said Dr Muoria.