Kenya Education for Employment Program – As they say, if its Thursday, I must be in Kisumu… or was it Nyeri?  Eldoret? Mombasa?  Nairobi?

I’m on an action packed visit to Kenya as part of NSCC & Camosun College’s Colleges and Institutes Canada (CICan) Kenya Education for Employment Program KEFEP TVET marketing project.   I’ve been traveling around the country with my colleague Ian Warrender (Global TVET Specialist) from Camosun, and NSCC faculty member Sam Kiragu and colleagues from our project partners from the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) – Edna Adala, Maxwell Okoth, Nancy Soila, Paul Juma and KUCCPS CEO John Muraguri –  to do focus group meetings with 10 Kenya National Polytechnics to better understand the challenges and opportunities for the National Polytechnics to market TVET programs.    The eventual outcome of this project is to develop a TVET marketing strategy, and tool kit for each National Polytechnic to improve enrolment efforts for new CBET courses being developed by KEFEP. 

It’s a real privilege to travel with the KUCCPS team and meet staff from the National Polytechnics and learn from them about this amazing country.  I’ve had quite a bit of experience working in neighbouring Tanzania, and there are many differences and similarities between the countries that take time to appreciate.  I’m also lucky to be traveling with Ian, who has worked in Kenya for several years on different Camosun projects, and of course Sam Kiragu, a NSCC faculty member who is originally from Kenya.  A highlight of the project so far was to travel with Sam to his home town of Nyeri for consultations with Nyeri and Meru National Polytechnics. 

We hosted 3 of the KUCCPS team (John Muraguri, Edna Adala and Maxwell Okoth) in November during our international education forum in Halifax before the Canadian Bureau for International Education conference, and the KUCCPS team was able to learn about Canadian approaches to TVET marketing, and to get to know our NSCC and Camosun team a bit better.  At first we were all a bit concerned with the project’s tight timelines, but now I feel like we are really able to work together well, and we will get there (and I might not even get lost!).

Kellie McMullin

Manager, International Learning (Outbound)

NSCC International