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"content": "Mr. Speaker, Sir, when it comes to Vision 2030, we are talking of industrialization. A country that it is industrializing needs technical personnel. You must have your own technical team to push. In fact, the last institution that we visited with the Education Committee was that the Rift Valley Technical Training Institute (RVTI). We realized that they have also had a jam since this encouragement came in. They have had almost a ten times increase in the number of students. Currently, they are running an institution of more than 7,000 students. Of course, we know that, that is a model institution that started in the 1950s and so, it had the capacity to grow and expand. It has been recognized as the East African center of excellence in technical training. Therefore, it is in its own class, but all the same, we need to tool and skill our youth. This will enable them to employ themselves and, more than anything, that is the only way we can industrialize. There is no way we can talk of industrialization, if we do not have the right numbers. Mr. Speaker, Sir, when Petroleum was discovered in Turkana we heard some worrying statements from the engineers of Tullow Oil Company; that most of the plumbers that Kenya has can only deal with water pipes, they cannot deal with high pressure pipes, which is the reason they brought people from outside the country. For how long will we train people who can only do the small manual jobs? It is my prayer that we will pass this Motion and ensure that our governors and county governments establish more youth polytechnics. I have given the minimum to be the locational level, but we should even go to the sub-locational level. As I said, it only makes sense to have one vocational training center for every four schools, because those four schools will give us a complete class. This is because we can only transit 60 per cent or an equivalent of two schools in some cases, and the rest are left out. Also, in the vocational training centers we harvest from the Form Four leavers. In the last two years, very many students could not join universities. At the moment, the universities only take about 25 per cent of what we produce in secondary school. At that rate, we have another group of 75 per cent that needs to be skilled differently. If only we had more vocational training centers, we would be able to expand on the training. After training youth of this county in various skills, we will be able to give them the necessary tools. The number of unskilled youth in every village is shocking. For example, for every youth group that you meet in our villages, only 10 per cent of them have undergone some kind of training. Many of them are not trained at all. When they seek for employment, they say they are ready to do any kind of job you will offer them because they have no skill. I appreciate the fact that the Government has now roped in the Technical Industrial, Vocational Education and Training (TIVET) into the Higher Education Loans Board (HELB). Students in TIVET will be advanced some loan by HELB. I also appreciate the fact that county governments have also set aside some budget for TIVET. I laud the County Government of Uasin Gishu for giving grants to over 300 students in TIVET at Mugundoi. This is what we should be encouraging in all our counties. However, 11 TIVETs in Uasin Gishu is extremely low. We should strive to double them in the next year or two years. Mr. Temporary Speaker, Sir, I know there are a good number of Members who would like to contribute to this Motion. This is a very straightforward Motion. I beg The electronic version of the Senate Hansard Report is for information purposes only. A certified version of this Report can be obtained from the Hansard Editor, Senate."
}