Young lecturers benefit from China TVET scholarship programme
Young lecturers in Kenya are set to benefit from a Chinese sponsored education programme alongside those from Tanzania and Ethiopia.
The 20 lecturers from Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania Regional Flagship Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutes (RFTIs) will benefit from the World Bank East Africa Skills for Transformation and Regional Integration Project (EASTRIP) initiative.
They have been awarded scholarships to upgrade their qualification in Science and Technology to support the advancement of Technical, Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in East Africa.
The Chinese government sponsored the programme as part of the tripartite partnership between the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), the People’s Republic of China through the Ministry of Education, and the World Bank to promote excellence in TVET and facilitate regional integration in East Africa.
The programme, which was signed in Beijing in November 2019, commenced in the 2020/2021 academic year, will offer over 100 scholarships to qualified young lecturers who are currently teaching in the RFTIs for the next five years to pursue master and PhD level studies at top Universities and Technical Colleges in China.
The programme is intended to complement the World Bank EASTRIP support, but with focus on improving the much needed academic, technical, and pedagogical capacity of the faculty in the growing sectors of the economy.
Candidates went through a rigorous multilevel selection process involving the college management, IUCEA, the China Scholarship Council, and Chinese universities.
The World Bank Task Team Leader, Dr Xiaoyan Liang, said there is a critical shortage of qualified teachers and trainers in the TVET institutions in Africa and the scholarship is designed to fill some of the important gaps.
“It will produce a core cluster of highly qualified staff to design and deliver quality demand-driven training programmes and to transform the RFTIs into true flagship institutes,” Dr Liang said.
EASTRIP is currently supporting 16 Regional Flagship TVET institutes (RFTIs) in the region to improve access and quality of TVET programmes for economic transformation and regional integration.
The 20 scholarships are available annually for five years, to support college students and teachers.
