The Principal Secretary for Vocational and Technical Training Dr Margaret Mwakima has today applauded TVET Authority for officially opening the Coast region office, terming it a milestone achievement that will bring services closer to the TVET providers and the general public.
The Coast region office, which is located at the NSSF Building- Ground Floor, is one of the three regional offices the Authority has established this year in an effort to devolve all the core functions closer to the clients. The other two are the Kisumu and Eldoret offices, which will also be officially opened in the coming weeks.
In a speech read by Deputy Director Technical Education Mr Nelson Gitau, the PS said the regional offices will create more efficiency, especially in the accreditation, quality assurance audits and also address all issues of concern including providing advisory services to TVET providers and members of the public in general.
The new TVET Authority Chairperson of the Board Prof. Florence Indede said the opening of the regional offices is in line with the Authority’s Strategic Plan and vision of providing education and training for a competent workforce.
She said that the Authority has made great strides since it was established in 2014 and acknowledged that there is still much work to be done, especially in working with county governments in improving the quality of training and ensuring more resources are allocated to address the various challenges facing Vocational Training Centres.
TVET Authority Director-General Dr Kipkirui Langat enumerated the many milestones the Authority has achieved since its inception, which include the accreditation of a record number of institutions, trainers and programmes, mainstreaming of compliance and enforcement of the sector through frequent quality audits, development of standards, among other landmarks.
He said the Authority has created impressive rapport with various partners and stakeholders that has inspired substantial support from development partners like the World Bank, UNESCO, ILO, Mastercard Foundation, AfDB, CiCan, Nuffic, among others, to support most of the programmes implemented by the Authority.
The function was also attended by the outgoing TVETA Board Chairperson Prof. Ahmed Ferej, Mombasa County CECM for Education, ICT and Vision 2035 Dr Seth Odongo, Aggrey Ndombi from ILO, Joan Kago from Base Titanium, TVETA Board of Directors and staff, and representatives of public and private TVET providers, among others.