CAP YEI Partnership

Technical Institutions / Youth Polytechnics

Banking and Financial Institutions

Corporate community

Objective of the partnership: Youth Polytechnics and TVETS

To replicate CAP YEIs BEST model in Youth Polytechnics and TVETS to complement their
curriculum portfolios. In addition, adaption of the model would increase the visibility and
promotes goodwill of partnership among all the concerned stakeholders.

Othaya Youth Polytechnic - Nyeri South:

Christian Industrial Training Center Mombasa

Thika Technical Training Institute

Eldoret Youth Polytechnic

Kakamega Youth Polytechnic

PC Kinyanjui Technical Training Institute

Objective of the partnership: Financial institutions

To enable financial inclusion of young Kenyans through facilitated linkages between the youth
and the banking institutions, thus enable youths access to opening of accounts, providing
financial literacy and entrepreneurship skills, and to assisting the young people to start micro
businesses.

SME Africa

Post Bank

Opportunity Kenya Limited

Youth Enterprise Development Fund

KIVA

Equity Bank

UWEZO Fund

MISSION

To build safer, healthier, and productive communities of young people capable of supporting
self-directed growth and positive citizenship.

VISION

CAP YEIs vision is to be an end- to-end community based solutions provider in linking quality
learning and sustainable livelihood for vulnerable communities of children and young people

QUALITY POLICY

CAP YEI's foundations dedicated professionals commit to address poverty alleviation by linking
learning and livelihood needs through innovative mechanisms for disadvantaged youth and
women thereby enabling them to access equitable and promising opportunities through
adherence to the Quality standards and practices

Approach
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CAP youth Empowerment Institute implements Basic Employability Skills Training (BEST)
model through public-private partnerships for its sustainability and scalability. CAP YEI
mobilizes target youth through government of Kenya Ministry of Youth (MOY); Partnership

with local NGOs and CBOs; Network of Youth Organizations; and skills training Sectors e.g.
Youth Polytechnics and TVETS. CAP YEI focuses on skills training in sectors in need of high
demand of workforce, including:

Hospitality

Customer Relations and Sales

Automobile

Security

Floriculture

Agriculture & Floriculture

Electrical and Electronics

Carpentry and Joinery

Industrial Garment Manufacturing

The program directly and indirectly benefits 10,000 young people in Kenya over a period of 5
years through demonstration and replication training centres. By the end of the program, the
program targets 2,700 youth through demonstration training centres and 7,300 youth through
replication training centres. In addition, an excess of 5,000 youth will indirectly benefit from
capacity building of youth polytechnics and TVET institutions. Out of these youth, 70% are
expected to find entry level job opportunities and the remaining will get into self-employment/
entrepreneurship opportunities.

CAP Youth Empowerment Institute was conceptualized to begin in Kenya November, 2011 to influence
2700 youth through demonstration centres; 7300 through replication and direct support of Youth
Polytechnics, totalling up to 10,000 youth over a period of five years. CAP YEI began training of youth

by establishing only one centre; Buruburu. Currently, there are additional 11 BEST training centres
including Athi River, Naivasha, Mombasa, Othaya, Thika, Nakuru, Kisumu, Eldoret, Kakamega,
Dagoretti, and Mikindani, putting the figure of CAP YEI centres at 12.
By October 31st 2014, a total of 3,981 youth had been enrolled into the program, 3,071 had
completed training, 523 are in internship, 182 of them had started their own small business
enterprises, and 1,935 or 75.94% who had completed training had been employed and were earning
money. A total of 836 Students are currently under training. Furthermore, youth who are in training
sessions continue to be linked to potential future employers through scheduled business mentor
networks (BMN), parents meetings, field exposure visits, and internship placements. In addition,
youth are facilitated to form peer groups, savings groups, and small income generating activities while
they are still training at CAP YEI. Furthermore, these groups continue to become part of alumni
networks that facilitate linkages to opportunities in the world of work and businesses. To date, 98
percent of the students who went through CAP YEI have opened their own personal and group bank
accounts and are saving some money.

Reform Polytechnics To Meet Market Needs

BY NDUNG'U KAHIHU

Last year, when Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi was releasing the Kenya
Certificate of Primary Education exam results, an important statistic from his speech was
lost among all the controversy about ranking and private versus public school candidates
looming selection, or lack of it, to secondary schools.
Kaimenyi announced that out of the 880,000 students who sat KCPE in 2014, only 687,000
would find places in secondary schools. Some 100,000 would be absorbed in technical and
vocational education and training institutions. He did not say what would happen to the
rest, 93,000, a number that has been increasing every year.
The constitution states that education is a fundamental right. But, even if this was not the
case, the sheer waste of potential represented by these children who fall through cracks
should concern everyone who cares about the nation.
The government has, since 2004, invested heavily in technical and vocational education
sector reforms. But reversing the negative effects of more than 40 years of neglect, wrong
policies and priorities will take time. Then again the tepid way these reforms are being done
and the many contradictions make one wonder whether we really value vocational skills
training, or we only say we do.
Otherwise how would you explain the many technical training institutions that have been
converted into universities and colleges and have never been replaced? Or the fact that,

while the entire TVET sector has the potential to enroll 100,000 students, according to
Kaimenyi, total university enrollment, largely the preserve of the elite middle class, is
340,000.
If this was purely a question of building more facilities to host more students, it would be
easy to solve. But the root causes of our TVET problem go far beyond the need for hardware.
It is a reflection of wrongheaded government priorities, neglect and societal attitudes that
rate technical education as inferior to academic education. The quality of education offered
in youth polytechnics is poor and teaching morale is extremely low. Many youth
polytechnics teach the same cookie cutter programmes they have offered for years, usually
a selection of carpentry, masonry, metal work, beauty care and basic IT.
But perhaps the biggest problem is the sectors silo structure, one that creates a disconnect
between those who supply the skills and those who consume them. Thus, there is hardly any
attempt made to link the polytechnics that offer the training with the industry employers
who hire these skills or to link what is taught with opportunities available in the market.
Students are required to invest at least two years of their lives in a programme that offers
them no guarantee of securing employment or finding markets or funding to start a
business.
No wonder many of them have been voting with their feet. For instance, although the
government subsidises the cost of education in youth polytechnics by more than half, the
majority of them are underutilised, in some cases running at less than 50 per cent capacity.
Such waste, in the face of increasing numbers of youth who are desperate for a chance to
gain employment skills and opportunities, is simply unacceptable. Something has to change.
The reform process now underway must give as much attention to the software questions
as to the hardware. The courses in youth polytechnics must be revised to make them more
relevant to the needs of Kenya today. Most importantly, flexible processes that enable
different polytechnics to offer different programmes and to regularly change them in direct
response to changing demand must be introduced. The new constitution, which placed
vocational education under county governments, is a good opportunity to start introducing
synch dynamism.
Finally, a system that seems to assess a student's knowledge and skill by how long she
stayed in school is clearly outdated. A competency based assessment and certification
system, one that judges ones capacity to perform a task, rather than how long or where you
learned these skills, needs to be introduced. This should go together with a modular course
system that allows students, for instance, to take many short courses rather than one long
one, in the process building a portfolio of skills. Youth polytechnics should also offer flexible
schedules that allow students to learn as they work - the same way universities do.

None of this is rocket science. So the question is, why are we not doing it? But perhaps the
more important question should be, is there the will to do it?
There is some evidence that change is on the way, albeit slowly. Last years establishment of
TVETA, the authority responsible for this sector has opened a door for a far-reaching
rethink of technical and vocational education that I hope will not be left to waste. The recent
reforms at the NYS, although not completed, show what kind of results can be achieved
where there is vision and political will.
Several private providers of youth employment skills training have tested models that show
that such changes can be made without too much cost or disruption. Some results are quite
impressive, averaging 75 per cent employment success for youth beneficiaries. The response
by industry, parents and the youth themselves has been very good, showing that indeed
there is a huge pent-up demand for responsive, market-driven skills training programmes.
We need to bring the best of these results from government, private sector and civil society
to reform the entire sector. It can be done. Will it be done? Our youth cannot wait forever.

Ndung'u Kahihu is executive director of Cap Youth Empowerment Institute, Nairobi.

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CAP-Youth Empowerment Institute Capacity Building

May 4

Another new business opportunity from the Entrepreneurship Office! Charles Masheti, the Senior
Manager announces another great partnership with Alpha Rama that will see youth translate their
micro businesses to profits through an opportunity in the shoes business that allows them to
purchase new shoes direct from the manufacturer and sell to make good profits. The opportunity is

open to both continuing students and CAP alumni and will be coordinated through the
Entrepreneurship Office at head office with the support of Center Coordinators. Interested
entrepreneurs should contact their respective Centers immediately to be enrolled in the program

CAP-Youth Empowerment Institute Capacity Building

February 5

The main objectives of the Capacity Building Programme for Youth Polytechnics and TVETS include:
To incorporate appropriate BEST modules in YPs curriculum for complimentary purposes.
To support instructors in introducing elements of the BEST modules of their interest in their classes
and among their students.
To increase implementation of labor market oriented employability skills training in Dundori YP.
Ultimately, capacity building of instructors would facilitate youth access to job placements in a
competitive job market, help youth make informed choices for their self-directed growth and positive
citizenship, and promote earning and savings culture among the youth

CAP-Youth Empowerment Institute Capacity Building

February 5

CAP-Youth Empowerment Institute (YEI) is a non government organization committed, specifically to

skills training for youth through Basic Employability Skill Training (BEST) model. CAP YEI is
implementing the Learn, Earn, and Save Initiative in Sub Sahara AfricaKenya, supported by the
MasterCard Foundation and CAP Workforce Development Institute (WDI).