- Kenya will need up to 30,000 trained solar technicians by 2025.
- TTI rolled out a training program targeting youth in Nairobi and Kakuma.
Kenyan-based Social Enterprise Toolkit Iskill (TTI) has urged youths in the country to warm up to the immense opportunities in the clean energy sector. According to the organization, the country is facing an acute shortage of trained technicians capable of installing and maintaining solar equipment.
A report done by ToolKit in collaboration with the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation (CIFF) and the French Embassy estimates that Kenya will need up to 30,000 trained solar technicians by 2025, a figure that the company opines may not be attained if the current numbers of youths trained in solar being churned out by Technical and Vocational Training Institutes (TVET) are anything to go by.
To fill the current gap in the solar market, TTI rolled out a training program targeting youth in Nairobi and Kakuma. The training was based on the existing government curriculum and improved with the private sector’s current demands. Trainees from the program have been given certification that will grant them labour mobility across Kenya and the East Africa region.
Director and founder of Toolkit Iskills (TTI), Jane Muigai, decried the importation of technicians to serve the African continent’s clean energy needs while endowed with a youthful population. She said, “Africa is importing skilled labour when it is teeming with a youth dividend. We need to take advantage of the growing sectors in Africa.”