Digital Literacy Capabilities of TVET Institutions for the Future of Work
Abstract
The government of Kenya has accepted Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) as a strategic pathway to socio-economic transformation. Policy statements, macro-development frameworks and trends now recognize that TVET is an enabler to accelerate functional skills for the labour market by imparting technical skills, social skills and values. Budget allocations for the sub-sector have risen in the last decade, with projections pointing at positive trajectories. These steps are taken to leapfrog development, reorient Kenya as a middle-income economy while dealing with the systemic and endemic challenges of youth unemployment. The global changes occasioned by shocks such as COVID-19 have accelerated the call for reorientation of work environments due to the shift in the fundamentals of employer-employee relations. These changes are happening when TVET is widely being recognized as the game-changer in the future of work. However, concerns are still evident on whether the curriculum available can meet this ambitious goal. This study presents national study report findings that explored the production of skills and competences of youth through Kenya’s TVET system. The study examined the extent to which TVET students exhibited technical, academic, digital and life skills and values through the whole youth development lenses. The study was conducted in 182 TVET institutions at all levels in nine counties. This paper looked at two main questions: 1) what are the TVET capabilities (organizational and technical readiness) to implement digital training? 2) What are the instructors’ capacity (pedagogical readiness) to implement digital training? The findings show that even though instructors capacity is important in ensuring quality if digital training but most of the instructors don’t possess the skills to offer digital training This paper concluded that we needed to invest in building digital capabilities by improving infrastructure and adaptive training models for the future of work. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Education should embark on a robust skilling of instructors and also build digital infrastructure to facilitate modern training models for the future of work.
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