Safaricom gives vocational centre Sh130m facelift

Safaricom headquarters on Nairobi’s Waiyaki Way. PHOTO | DIANA NGILA

Safaricom #ticker:SCOM has allocated Sh130 million towards upgrading of Waithaka Vocational Centre and sponsored 350 students to undertake two-year technical courses in various fields.

Speaking when they commissioned the refurbished and newly equipped centre of excellence(CoE), Safaricom Foundation trustee Steve Chege said the investment was informed by the need to influence perception of technical training institutes from ‘failure yards’ and to innovation hubs.

“Waithaka is a CoE model for a new curriculum that targets demand-driven courses in the country. We want the students to get jobs upon graduation so as to raise adequate capital to launch own businesses. That will turn them into employers whose businesses can be tasked with big ticket jobs,” he said.

Technical and Vocational Training permanent secretary Julius Jwan said the TVET curriculum was aligned to skills-building that taps into individual talents of the learners.

According to the Higher Educational Loans Board Study, 96 percent of TVET graduates get jobs compared to 40 percent of university graduates but perception of TVET as ‘failure yards’ has discouraged many youth from joining TVETs to acquire skills.

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