709 trainees graduate from Nyamira TVETs in push for skilled workforce

DEBORAH BOCHERE-KNA

Nyamira County Government has strengthened its skills pool by graduating 709 vocational trainees from 26 Vocational Education and Training Centres across the county.

Speaking during the grand joint graduation ceremony at Sironga Grounds in West Mugirango Constituency, Governor Amos Nyaribo challenged the graduates to embrace vocational skills as a pathway to addressing unemployment and accelerating Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSME) growth, noting that the training is designed to be skillsto-job oriented.

The County boss observed that job opportunities are limited and called for a paradigm shift from training solely for the job market to promoting self-employment and society-responsive innovation.

He advised young people against rushing to join universities, noting that this does not necessarily guarantee access to jobs.

“Training for the job market is expanding more than 10 times the growth of the economy. Focus on employing yourself,” Nyaribo said.

Governor Nyaribo committed to continue supporting technical and vocational training to empower youth and drive socioeconomic transformation in the country.

“We will train more students and incorporate more competitive courses to guarantee a better future for our youth,” he said.

The 709 trainees who graduated received full and partial scholarship from the County Government in partnership with the Kenya Commercial Bank (KCB) Foundation.

For the trainees who received full scholarship, the County Government of Nyamira committed Sh15 million, which was matched by the KCB Foundation.

KCB Foundation Team, led by Programmes Manager Joblin Omari assured that at least Sh10 million has been committed to support full scholarships for the second cohort and the county government will match the amount.

He appealed to youths who are interested in gaining skills and have not managed to enroll to do so immediately so that they are considered for scholarship.

In delivering his keynote address, Kisii University Vice Chancellor Prof. Nathan Ogechi said TVETs and VTCs are key centres for problem-solving innovations, hence the need for more technical and financial support for quality outcomes.

He guaranteed that Kisii University is ready to partner with Nyamira County in promoting quality research and training.

The VC added that the University is planning to expand its scope of training into engineering to meet the growing demands of such skills.

Further, he committed to work with the leadership of the County Government of Nyamira in delivering Nyamira University, which will start as a constituent college of Kisii University.

During the event, the top 149 best performing trainees from different trainings received toolkits worth up to a maximum of Sh40,000 to start them off in entrepreneurship.