Credit Transfer Policy to Upgrade TVET-Acquired Skills to University Level
The government is developing a policy with the aim of ensuring that skills and credentials acquired through technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and experiences beyond the classroom can be improved through credit transfer to the university level.
Dr. Esther Muoria, principal secretary of the State Department for Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), stated that this would guarantee that young people can enroll in any TVET institution and advance to the point where they earn the highest degree, including a doctorate, in their field of study.
Dr. Muoria stated that this credential upgrade policy will improve our youth’s mobility by incentivizing them to continue their education and enhancing their skill development. Credit transfer from one level to the next will further facilitate this progression.
Asserting the right to education for every Kenyan, the director declared the Government’s commitment to guaranteeing equal learning opportunities for all citizens. He emphasized ongoing investments in primary education and called on all Kenyans to actively participate in ensuring gender equality in education at all levels for both boys and girls.
ALSO READ: Govt Ask Teachers to Upgrade Education Level and Conform To CBC Reforms
Participants of the ad hoc committee tasked with evaluating the Kenya Credit Accumulation and Transfer System (KCATS) listened to Dr. Muoria’s speech at a multisectoral workshop on Monday in Naivasha.
She further advocated that each young person should possess a secondary source of income if their primary career encounters difficulties. Furthermore, she stated that college and university students could still return to TVET institutions to acquire a skill.
In opening remarks read by Dr. Mworia at the start of the five-day workshop, Mr. Ezekiel Machogu, the Education Cabinet Secretary (CS), said that this policy would be a big step toward national, regional, and continental goals for learner mobility and lifelong learning.
Machogu said that the Ministry hopes that this system will make it easier for students to move between and within different programs, institutions, and levels of qualification. These include TVET schools, universities, and professional examining bodies. This system will facilitate not only credit transfers and exemptions but also learners’ vertical and horizontal mobility at all levels, enabling entry, re-entry, and exit.
ALSO READ: KCSE Police Officer Killed, Centre Manager Escapes Alive
The CS says that global megatrends mean that education and training need to change to meet new needs, make it easier for skills and people to be compatible with each other, and allow for flexible pathways to qualifications while still ensuring quality. In response to these demands, the Government of Kenya has initiated reforms to create tools and instruments that equip young Kenyans with the necessary capabilities to flourish in a competitive, industrializing, closely interconnected, and globalized world.
Machogu noted that the ever-changing and developing worldwide patterns of economies reliant on knowledge and skills necessitate frameworks that promote continuous education. He reaffirmed the government’s dedication to offering inclusive, high-quality education and training to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Machogu stated that there is currently unprecedented emphasis from the government on learner mobility, recognition, and the internationalization of qualifications in the country.
He noted that the Presidential Working Party Report on Education and Training highlighted the necessity of establishing and executing a Credit Accumulation and Transfer system to ease the mobility of qualifications.
Dr. Alice Kande, acting chief executive officer (CEO) of the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA), stated that the policy review was reasonable because it would assist the nation in developing high-quality training for its youth.
ALSO READ: Knec Oversees KCPE Marking, Promises Timely Examiners Payment
She said that the policy framework could be broken through a transfer process. This will make sure that no learned knowledge or skill is wasted, whether it was gained in a classroom or somewhere else.
Dr. Kande went on to say that the framework allows people to move up or down in the organization and makes it clear at what level someone with the right skills or knowledge can get a diploma or degree. It does this by outlining a planned and organized process.
She emphasized that everyone should be able to move horizontally and vertically, acknowledging prior knowledge and promoting lifelong learning simultaneously.
Dr. Kande also said that the policy would address a number of unresolved issues in education, such as the fact that different schools have had very different approaches to recognizing prior learning skills and knowledge.
Additionally, the government has lately put forth a policy framework that aims to identify individuals possessing particular skills but lacking the requisite academic papers for such recognition.
ALSO READ: KCSE Exams End This Friday as Government Shuts Down Several Social Media Sites
Individuals, particularly those in the informal sector, who demonstrate exceptional proficiencies (competencies) in plumbing and masonry will be subjected to a rigorous evaluation process and granted certifications due to this initiative. KNQA, the Kenya National Qualifications Authority, is in charge of coordinating the entire procedure.
Kande explained Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) as a way to find, evaluate, and certify a person’s skills, no matter when, where, or how they learned them, as long as they meet certain educational goals or benchmarks. Its purpose is to assist these individuals in attaining a degree of professional acknowledgment in their respective fields.
Mainly targeted are out-of-school adolescents, migrant workers, and refugees, workers in the informal sector who possess exceptional expertise in their fields, and asylum seekers.
The Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) asserts that Kenya needs to grapple with a significant shortage of the proficient and pertinent labor force, attributable to a misalignment between the skills generated and the labor market demands.
ALSO READ: ECDE Teacher Employment, Salary & Requirements
Credit Transfer Policy to Upgrade TVET-Acquired Skills to University Level
