When Dennis Gitonga enrolled for a Diploma in Electrical Engineering course at the Meru National Polytechnic in 2021, he never imagined that he would abandon the programme just a year down the line, and embark on a different diploma program, wasting a whole academic year spent at the college.
The decision to change course-literally came in September 2022 when he was sponsored for a month-long exchange programme at the Arusha Technical college in Tanzania.
During the one-month mobility stay at the college sponsored by the East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP), Dennis and 21 colleagues were enrolled into a unit in Air Conditioning and Refrigeration(AC), that would later hugely influence the direction of studies.
Under the unit they were taught all about how refrigeration systems work, about air conditioning in vehicles and in buildings, opening his eyes to new opportunities not only as a student but also as a person.
“Unlike the practice in Kenya, the training in Tanzania was intensive in practical lessons where every theory class was followed by practical sessions in the afternoon, ingraining in us the skills needed to understand the concepts in AC,” he said.
When the college closed for holidays that year, he went back home in Maua, Meru County, where instead of idling at home decided to visit local garages to further sharpen his knowledge in the newly studied skill.
To his surprise, out of the many garages in the town, only four artisans had knowledge in AC and auto electrical, and even the four had no formal training in the trade indicating a skills gap.
“This was despite the fact that the demand for these skills was very high, and from this I saw a huge opportunity going by the number of offers for repair jobs I was getting for the five months I was out of college,” the 23-year-old who has always had an interest in vehicles said.
It is at this point that he decided to discontinue his studies in electrical engineering, an enrol at MNP afresh in 2023 for a course in automotive engineering, to take advantage of the identified skills gap.
Now a second year student in automotive, Gitonga uses his own money for upkeep, his parents only paying for tuition and accommodation expenses.
“I spend my weekends and other free time attending to clients, repairing their fridges or in garages repairing faulty auto ACs. Only recently I repaired my landlord’s freezer unit which saw him reduce my monthly rent by a substantial amount,” said the student who disclosed that he planned to set up a fridge repair workshop soon as he is through with studies.
His remarkable story would not have been possible with the support of EASTRIP who paid for his mobility to Arusha, which hosted by the Inter-University Council for East Africa has three components. These include strengthening selected RFTIs for developing skills in priority sectors, creating “nationally enabling environments” for technical and vocational education and training (TVET), and enhancing regional collaboration in TVET and project coordination.
It is training technicians and teachers at certificate, diploma, and degree levels in regional priority sectors of transport and infrastructure, energy, agriculture, manufacturing and ICT.
The project’s major development objective is to increase access and improve the quality of TVET programs in Regional Flagship Training Institutes(RFTI), and to support regional integration in East Africa.
It has since 2018 been supporting the MNP, after it was competitively selected as a in Civil Engineering and Building Technology.
The polytechnic was selected to the ESTRIP initiative alongside 15 other RFTIs in Tanzania, Kenya, and Ethiopia jointly benefiting from US$293 million in World Bank International Development Association (IDA) support, for the development of highly specialized TVET programmes, as well as industry-recognised, short-term, certificate-level training among others.
With the financing of ESTRIP the MNP is now putting up a new campus with all major facilities to help admit more students and expand from the current location in Meru town, which will push the institution ahead according to Chief Principal Mutembei .A. Kigige.
In addition, the institution has acquired modern training equipment at the cost of Ksh260 million including survey and material testing ones installed in modern state-of-art laboratories, the Principal noted.
The commercial grade testing facilities were also helping the institution attain sustainability by carrying out tests on construction material brought by the industry and the public.
This is besides support of curricula to bring it to current industrial trends and new, support with new vehicles for improved mobility plus ‘retooling’ and upgrading of trainers have all raised the profile of the polytechnic founded nearly 50 years ago.
“It is very expensive to do curriculum review and development on our own, as it involves a lot of work including things like market surveys, but with EASTRIP support we have been able to do this and come up with industry-led curriculum for various programs,” he told KBC Digital.
With the new and enhanced programs, and raised visibility MNP has been able to admit foreign students mainly from the East African region, producing skilled technicians needed to support infrastructure development.
“With a small budget for publicity courtesy of EASTRIP, we have been to do some and we are proud to say that we are even enrolling university graduates who are coming to us for up skilling. We also have an online campus enabled by the project,” the principal disclosed.
Among the six major EASTRIP components are outreach and support for non-project National Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
Under the component, the MNP has conducted joint activities in marketing and upgrading of trainers for fives institutions in the region including Kiirua, Karumo and Mukiria Technical Training institutes, the Mitunguu National Polytechnic, and Kithoka Vocational Training Centre (VTC), said Peter Karanu Mbaka, EASTRIP Centre Leader at the polytechnic.
The institutions have been supported in terms of upgrading of trainers, joint marketing activities to boost enrolment as well as developing of CBET programs. The MNP has also been working with these institutions in the awarding of qualifications to their trainees, Mbaka he disclosed.
With one of the deliverables being improvement enrolment for the building courses, they have over the project period admitted over more than 3500 students against EASTRIP baseline of 1,000 students.
“We also managed to spread the benefits of EASTRIP to all infrastructure training departments in MNP, while we have been doing benchmarking with the Arab academy of Egypt. An Industry Advisory board has been put in place, while sector Skills Advisory Committees (SSACs) are in place,” he added.
At the same time 30 managers have received and completed the senior management course at the Kenya School of Government.
More importantly, some 13 trainers and technicians have been upgraded to degree of technology in civil engineering at the nearby Meru University of science and Technology, while another 13 trainers and technicians have been upgraded to diploma level at polytechnic, the engineer noted.
The centre head emphasized.; “We have also employed trainers who are engineers and related professionals and given them scholarships in pedagogy training,” he observed. “A tracer study software has been developed by a consultant and commissioned while five tracer studies have been conducted and a sixth one was being done for the 2024/2025 financial year”.
The institution had additionally advanced regional integration 55 students from MNP have undergone a student exchange at Dar es Salaam Institute of Technology in Tanzania for a short-term exchange program, while a similar number from (DIT has been hosted at MNP for the same period.
Another 20 from Arusha Technical College were in MNP September 2022 for an exchange program, while 20 from the NP were in ATC at the same time.
He noted that similar exchanges involving 83 students from General Wingate Polytechnic, Ethiopia are undertaking a blended long-term exchange program at the MNP, with another 41 undertaking a blended short-term exchange program, all thanks to EASTRIP.
“At the moment we are hosting three Chinese lecturers focused on delivery of content from the Kunming Kunming Metallurgy College, China with whom we have an MOU on staff exchange,” Mbaka revealed, demonstrating the depths of mobility capacity afforded by EASTRIP.
