INDUSTRIALIZATION IS THE ENGINE VISION 2030 NEEDS TO MOVE

Today’s globalized economy requires a well-educated workforce that can aptly apply their skills and readily adapt to the evolving needs of the economy. In Kenya we boast of our educated manpower yet, time and time again, we have witnessed lack of skilled personnel in key fields including engineering and medicine. Expatriates are constructing our roads, treating our patients and mining our resources. Our global ranking in higher education and training is wanting. The 2013/2014 Competitiveness Index report places Kenya at position 103 out of 148 countries surveyed.

Postgraduate training, which enables students to gain specialized training and impart skills to address various challenges, is expensive and few people in our country can afford it. This has resulted into few numbers of students enrolling for postgraduate studies. This is especially evident in scientific fields, which remains at an all time low. During the 50th Congregation of the University of Nairobi, only about 30 per cent of the 8,971 graduates got postgraduate degrees in different category. About 0.82 per cent received Doctor of Philosophy degrees.

The government continually strives to improve these statistics and the industry should increase its contribution to complement the efforts made so far and build more capacity. Universities and other higher education institutions can increase capacity building opportunities, especially for post graduate training by making partnership with the industry a clear priority.

Education and industrial sectors have different mandates; industry setup to generate revenue while the aim of education is to generate new knowledge, disseminate it and undertake human resource development. There is therefore need to en- sure the relationship is beneficial to the two and sustainable.

Industries can contribute in capacity development through research funding, provide equipment and laboratories, student scholarships, provide practical training centres for students to gain hands on-skills and experience and  even in curriculum development to ensure that graduate skills match industrial needs.

Industry as a vital component of national innovation systems can propel economic development as they tap into the pool of expertise from universities including applied research and intellectual property while also teaming up with universities to set up technology transfer centres and science parks.

Most of the research carried out to provide solutions to local challenges only end up at the report stage and rarely benefit the society as intended. They can only impact the society through dissemination of research findings and application.

Also, incorporating entrepreneurship training, which is required to encourage graduates to become job creators rather than seekers, could lead to spin-offs and incubators for wealth creation and economic development.

Sustainable capacity building must involve human resource planning vis a vis the current number of skilled personnel in each sector. It is high time we implement the recommendations of manpower audits done in the country to be able to meet the   requirements of the industry as well as limit staffing crisis frequently experienced.

The programmes and projects aligned for second phase of the Vision 2030 requires specialized skills and training to be able to deliver the promises set by Vision 2030. Only through quality higher education and training will we be able to transform our economy beyond simple production processes into a knowledge economy.