KITALE, TRANS NZOIA COUNTY
Vocational training institutions in Trans Nzoia have reason to smile after getting equipment boost from Holland after the county government partnered with a group from the European country to boost training in various courses offered at the institutions.
Vocational training institutions in Trans Nzoia county have reason to smile after getting equipment from the Netherlands after the county government partnered with a group from the European country to boost training in various courses offered at the institutions.
Trans Nzoia County director of youth training Eliud Lusweti revealed to the Weekly Western Chronicle at Kitale Vocational Training Center in Saboti constituency that the county government has partnered with an organization known as Tools to Work from Netherlands that has offered to supply the vocational institutions with modern tools and training on how they are used and repaired.
“We have partnered with an organization known as Tools to Work from Netherlands who came to Trans Nzoia County and went round our vocational training centers and asked us how they can assist in improving these centers and we agreed that they can assist us with equipment because our institutions have a challenge of equipment,” said Lusweti.
He said that the organization has now sent some modern sewing machines with their experts to help train instructors selected from various vocational institutions to be trained and oriented on how to use the machines and repair them before they can be supplied to the centers in a pilot program.
The director added that during the two-week training session the instructors from 16 vocational centres from across the county will get the opportunity to understand how such equipment can be used efficiently unlike in the past where some machines are received from foreign countries but the operational and maintenance know-how is never attained hence they stall as soon as one part breaks down and nobody knows how to repair it.
“We are doing a pilot training program in 16 vocational training centres after which at the end of the training we shall roll the program in all the vocational centres so that our instructors who have been employed by the County Government of Trans Nzoia apart from teaching of students, they will also be able to repair and maintain these new machines,” he said.
Students to take machines home at end of training
Lusweti further revealed that during the pilot program of the project, 100 students have been selected to benefit from the machines within the two years of training whereby at the end of the training,a student shall be allowed to go with the sewing machine or any other machine to start using it out there as they start being self-employed after getting the relevant training.
“We have realized that most of our students when they finish training and acquire the relevant certificates, they just go back home and sit with their certificates doing nothing because they do not have the equipment and capital to start the work in the relevant course they have trained in and therefore the county government under the leadership of governor Patrick Khaemba has come in assisting the students to get training and equipment to go out with it at the end of the training to start their own work,” said Lusweti.
However the director said that various stakeholders including the county government shall come in to assist the students in paying for the machine at a subsidized price whereby the new sewing machine costs Kshs 85,000 but the county government has made it cheaper for a student to acquire it at a cost of Kshs 15,000 which can be paid for in a period of two years.
“Under this program we want our first 100 students who will enrol in our vocational training institutions in the county shall be allocated the machines and if they show commitment to the training, we want them to go with the machine at the end of the training and the certificate so that when they leave can start being self-employed immediately after training without hustling to raise money to purchase equipment to start work,” Lusweti said.
Program to spread to other courses
The director further revealed that the program is not restricted to fashion design and garment making alone but will spread to other courses with time mentioning motor vehicle training, metal processing and the other common courses offered at the training institutions to ensure they all benefit and be self-employed after acquiring the training skills.
Apart from the new program, the county government of Trans Nzoia has employed 140 trained instructors distributed in all the vocational training institutions in the county to relieve the initial volunteers and casuals who had been running the institutions without any employment terms and contracts to deliver accordingly.
Lusweti however has urged parents to enrol their young children at the institutions and even adults themselves can also enrol to the institutions to train and acquire skills in certain courses of interest bearing in mind that the centres are no longer restricted to youths or villagers or even school drop-outs and failures as it had been perceived in the earlier days.
“I would like to urge the people of Trans Nzoia to embrace these institutions by enrolling themselves or their children to acquire skills that can enable them to improve their livelihoods through starting jobs that they can manage themselves and generate income through the skills acquired because these centres are no longer for youths or villagers as it used to be perceived by many people bearing in mind that the county and national governments are investing heavily in these institutions,” said Lusweti.
At least each of the 25 wards of the county has one or more vocational training institution that is equipped with relevant equipment and five instructors each to be accessed by any youth or interested person from the ward or village.
