LEARN 4 WORK PROGRAMME VALIDATION WORKSHOP REPORT

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Vocational Training was said to be the basis for finding work or starting a business in order to offer young people more opportunities to improve their income and raise their standards of living. The Facilitator explained that vocational education in Africa and for that matter Kenya has long been of low priority and pointed out that the private sector should get more involved in TVET activities since the sector forms the local labor market. She further explained that with the growing world population faced with high poverty levels, unemployment and food insecurity, there is urgent need for Kenya and the rest of the world to enhance TVET and its quality at institutional level. Participants appreciated the fact that the government was presented in the workshop and that TVET should be linked to the labor market. The Facilitator reiterated that TVET is an important part of basic education and thus should be strengthened in terms of access, quality, relevance and institutional development. It was explained that with a firm TVET framework in place, the labor market will receive skilled labor and more people will be employed since they have the required skills in the job market. In addition, the unskilled staff in the industry will be able to go back to TVET for training and increase their productivity. As a way of recap, the facilitator explained that it was necessary to understand the characteristics of Learn4work as working in partnership among various sectors, communities and governments. She challenged the participants to participate in exchange of programmes, knowledge and experiences. It was also outlined that focus on specific sectors was a characteristic of L4W where participants were challenged to bring focus on the changing labor market and device appropriate TVET programmes that meet the market needs. On the extent of L4W in Kenya, The facilitator explained that short term intervention guidelines were being processed and would be released in the near future. She observed that locally, the L4W network is not fully enhanced and the Edukans Foundation is planning to employ a local coordinator whom they will together do extensive capacity building and training. It was highlighted that the Dutch government is recommending that EF takes up only four countries in Africa instead of the current five and that EF was yet to decide which of the five countries will be dropped. The lead facilitator however stated that Kenya and Ethiopia are two countries in which the L4W programme has been successful and hence are likely to be part of the chosen four. 3
The Lead Facilitator also explained that EF will be making a guide line on the funds available in order to facilitate participants to understand the realistic budget. She observed that it was not realistic to have a budget of 1 million Euros. It was explained that the guide lines on funding were ongoing and will be finalized once there is a country coordinator in place. The Dutch Government committed to provide 34% of the funds involved in EF projects and participants and NGOs were advised to engage in more fundraising activities. The facilitator concluded that ht ere is connection between the labor market and TVET but noted that cooperation with the labor market was going to be a difficult task for EF and the TVET team hence calling for extensive communication, patience and information sharing to achieve it. She cited several differences in ideologies, systems and policies between the North and South as the cause for the difficulties. The facilitator observed that EF was not aware of the scope i.e the number of teachers, learners and trainees (beneficiaries) it does reach in its engagements and thus challenged the TVET partners to improve on reporting and records. 2.3.2 Project Example L4W The facilitator Mr. Mutinda Munguti introduced SASOL as one of the Edukan’s L4W exchange programmes whose thematic areas were on land and water management, vocational education and enterprise development. In justify the course of SASOL, the facilitator explained that 70% of the population lives below the poverty line with no access to formal education and thus on this backdrop, the youths have to be creative through TVET. SASOL involves the youth in exchange programme internships, apprentices involving post primary school youths in: welding, mechanics, tailoring and hair plaiting. He suggested that the micro level skilled trainees should also be linked to the private sector through TVET. The Facilitator stated that L4W TVET is important as it adds value to the society by stimulating an entrepreneur culture among the people and allowing students to choose courses that are relevant at the labor market level. It was also explained that SASOL links TVET and the employment market by initially doing a market research to determine relevant skills and then train graduates in those skills and stimulate their uptake into the job market through networking. SASOL in collaboration with local polytechnics has formalized the informal TVET trainees’ skills by providing them with a 4
Page 1 and 2: LEARN 4 WORK PROGRAMME VALIDATION W
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Abbreviat
Page 5: 2.0 WORKSHOP PROCEEDINGS 2.1 Prelim
Page 9: 3.0 CLOSURE A vote of thanks was mo

LEARN 4 WORK PROGRAMME VALIDATION WORKSHOP REPORT

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