Integrating Production with Training in TVET Institutions

A Learning-by-Doing Model for Competency-Based Skills Development

Overview

Kenya has made substantial investments in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) to support industrialization, job creation, and implementation of Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET). Despite these investments, practical training in many National Polytechnics remains largely prototype-based, where trainees produce demonstration projects that consume expensive materials every training cycle. Industrial attachment opportunities are insufficient for all trainees. This leads to high training costs with limited exposure to real industrial production.

At the same time, TVET institutions possess significant untapped production capacity. They have modern workshops, machinery, qualified trainers, trainees, and multidisciplinary departments capable of producing quality goods and services. However, these resources are seldom organized into productive units that simultaneously support learning, income generation, and industrial collaboration.

There is therefore an opportunity to transform TVET institutions into productive learning enterprises where trainees learn by doing, trainers supervise real production, and institutions manufacture marketable products while delivering competency-based education.

The Proposed Model

TVET institutions will integrate production with training across all departments within TVET institutions.

Under this approach:
• Departments will identify and source commercially viable projects from government, industry, communities, and private clients.
• Trainers and trainees will jointly implement these projects as part of normal teaching and learning.
• Industry experts will be engaged on visiting or consultancy terms to complement institutional trainers, ensuring industrial standards, quality assurance, technology transfer, and mentorship.
• Simple projects will be undertaken by individual departments, while complex assignments will be jointly planned and implemented through multidisciplinary teams, with each department contributing according to its expertise and delivery.
• Quality assurance will remain a continuous activity throughout planning, production, inspection, and delivery.
• The model shifts learning from workshop simulation to authentic industrial practice, giving trainees practical exposure before graduation.