Members of the Uasin Gishu County Assembly have been challenged to consider using part of the Ward Development Fund to sponsor students to join Kenya Technical Trainers College (KTTC) and travel abroad for studies.
The assembly passed a bill that provides for each ward to be allocated a certain amount of money which locals decide on the projects to fund.
Uasin Gishu Governor Jackson Mandago now wants part of that allocation to be used to support youth interested in being tutors at technical and vocational training institutions.

Mandago notes that with the national government setting up Technical Training Institutions (TTIs) and Vocational Training Colleges (VTCs) across the country, there will soon be a huge demand for teachers in the institutions.
“About 150 TTIs need teachers who are not there. This is why sponsoring students to KTTC will be as good as employing them,” said the governor.
For one to be a teacher at a TTI or VTC, he/she first needs to have a certificate or diploma in a certain area and an additional Education diploma from KTTC.
The KTTC diploma course takes a year.

“If each MCA can sponsor 20 students from their wards, by December when the tutors’ positions are advertised, we will have at least 600 of our youths get those jobs,” noted Mandago.
Uasin Gishu Youths to Finland program
The governor also wants an initiative in which the youths are sponsored to travel to Finland for studies formally incorporated as part of county programs.
He says in the coming Financial Year, at least Ksh7 million should be set aside from the Ward Fund in each of the 30 wards to facilitate students traveling abroad.

“If we can get two or three students from needy families to have a child sponsored to travel to Finland for education, we would have set a good foundation for this program,” said Mandago.
So far, 51 students from Uasin Gishu are already in Finland studying among others Nursing and Physiotherapy courses.
The second batch of 125 students is expected to travel to Finland by February 28, 2022.
Preparations are also in place to identify another over 100 fresh nurses that will join other Uasin Gishu youths in Finland.
Also Read: More Uasin Gishu Youths Headed For Finland to Study