Noor said the issue of pen and paper is now gone since the world is now going for skills.
“I urge our youth that instead of being on the streets and talking on TikTok, they come to NITA and learn skills which can enable them to employ themselves, be employed by various sectors and get jobs outside the country,” Noor said.
He addressed the press on the sidelines of the third inauguration ceremony for the new members of NITA’s Sector Training Committees at NITA, Athi River campus on Friday.
Noor said the authority’s mission is to provide quality industrial training for enhanced productivity.
“Towards fulfilling its mission, NITA under Section 7C of the Industrial Training (Amendment) Act 2011, has been granted the mandate to facilitate industrial training by regulating trainers registered under the Industrial Act,” Noor said.
Sector Training Committees are functional committees constituted by the National Industrial Training Board under the Industrial Training Act Cap 237, to oversee the upskilling of workers in a specific sector.
The inauguration’s theme was, “Fostering Collaboration: Advancing Skills Development through Sector Leadership.”
“Today, we came to inaugurate centre training committees. These are members of special organisations that we work with so that they can contribute to filling gaps that we might have in skills training,” Noor said.
“We have twelve centre committee trainings from different institutions of this country. The sectors include; agriculture and allied agencies, wholesale – retail and allied agencies, energy – water and allied agencies, finance – insurance – business services and allied agencies, infrastructure and allied agencies and manufacturing and allied agencies,” Noor said.
Other sectors are; environment – natural resources and allied agencies, transport – storage and allied agencies, tourism – sports and creative arts sector, health and allied agencies, education – training and allied agencies alongside ICT and allied agencies.
Noor said these are the people who assist the board behind the scenes on areas they need to improve on as NITA in terms of adding value to what they do.
“We meet them to discuss how to improve skills in the country. NITA does the skilling of persons. We re-skill and up-skill. Those skilled by NITA are the people who President William Ruto always want to go work outside the country," he said.
"Without skilling, we can’t send people out. We are happy that NITA, because of the skills is standing on its own and we feel that the people we train can work locally and internationally and remit some funds back home,” Noor said.
He said NITA is committed to having as many people as possible join their programs for technical skills.
“We don’t segregate class eight, form four leavers, and even class five dropouts. Sometimes, we train people from universities, but they can’t open a car engine. But, when we train Grade eight leavers, they can open car engines within an hour’s time,” Noor said.
Noor said NITA’s training involves 80 per cent practicals. He said it is skills that develop the developed countries.
“Youth who are now on the streets are looking for jobs. These people who are learning skills get jobs six months before they complete their training. But, you carry degrees that aren’t commensurate with what we have in our country,” Noor said.
