By: Dr. Michael Derrick Odhiambo
A new initiative has been launched to provide technical and vocational education and training for women in Kenya, supporting the country's transition to a green and sustainable economy. The initiative was unveiled at the Movenpick Hotel in Nairobi on October 8th and 9th, 2025.
This program, aimed at promoting employment opportunities for women and advancing green industry projects, is jointly funded by Germany and South Korea through the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). It is being implemented in collaboration with Kenya's Ministry of Education, specifically the State Department for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET).
The initiative will equip young women with market relevant skills for green and industrial sectors. It will directly benefit 3,000 youth, particularly women, while helping industries access a skilled workforce trained in sustainable manufacturing and green technologies.
The chief guest was by Dr. Esther Thaara Muoria, the current Principal Secretary in the State Department for Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET), representatives from the embassies of Germany and South Korea, The country deputy Director KOICA Ms. Hwayeong Bae, and Prof Laila U. Abubakar, the vice chancellor Technical University of Mombasa, who was accompanied to the event by Dr. Michael D. Odhiambo, the director TUM TVET Institute.
In her keynote speech Prof. Laila U. Abubakar, narrated the history of TUM and its root in TVET programmes, informing the audience of its transition from Technical Vocational Institute back in 1948, its promotion to a National Polytechnic in 1972, and subsequent promotion to a Technical University in 2013. Acknowledging the fact that enrollment of women in STEM programmes is miserable, she informed the leadership in the audience that this is best remedied if included as a performance target during performance contracting. Prof. Laila said that gender focused TVET should be more that mere policy; It should be intentional, STEM departments in every institution need to be reminded regularly of the need to increase female enrollment.
Prof. Laila lamented that behind the ‘Kazi ni kazi’ mantra lies an unfortunate reality; not everyone has an equal opportunity to access STEM jobs. “For a long time, technical jobs have been viewed with a masculine lense”, she said. She recommended that women need to mentored to take on STEM fields from an earlier age, as early as primary school. She emphasized on the need for role models, giving an example of the TUM approach where the presence of a sizable number of female technologies encourages female students to pursue STEM, as they can see themselves fitting in similar shoes.
On the concept of dual training, Prof. Laila, outlined TUM's history and approach to dual training, where the students share time between industry and school. She outlined the successes that had been witnessed in this approach where in some cases student got jobs immediately after training. She also insisted that even at the industries, the work environment should be designed to be conducive to the special needs of women, giving an example of appropriate sanitary room designs.
On the subject of green economy Prof. Laila outlines TUMs success stories in training for the green economy singling out amongst other our Solar Photovoltaics training programme, that enrolls over 50% females for every cohort. She said that green transition is rewriting the future of work.
“Across Kenya, we are seeing a rapid rise in demand for skills in renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing, e-mobility, hospitality, and green construction. And here lies a beautiful opportunity - because these emerging sectors are not bound by old stereotypes. They are new, dynamic, and open. We have a chance to design them right from the start — inclusive, sustainable, and equitable. When we equip young women with green skills, we are not just closing gender gaps; we are fueling Kenya’s journey toward a low-carbon, resilient, and innovative economy. That is what this project is about — linking gender equity and sustainability as two sides of the same coin”
Prof. Laila ended the speech by appreciating, and congratulating KOICA, GIZ, and the Ministry of Education for this visionary partnership.
