Displaying items by tag: TVETA

Since Technical and Vocational Education and Training Authority (TVETA) was operationalized in 2014 to regulate and coordinate TVET in the country, the Authority has achieved a lot within a short time culminating in today’s landmark celebration of ISO 901:2015 Certification.

Our reporter caught up with TVETA’s Director General/CEO Dr. Kipkirui Langat to find out more about what this milestone means to the Authority, the TVET sub-sector and the country in general.

How does it feel to be ISO 9001:2015 Certified?

It feels great and gives us as the TVETA family a sense of fulfilment because we have worked hard in the last one and half years to achieve this status. We launched the Quality Management System (QMS) in July, 2019 and at the time there were many transformations taking place in the Authority including implementation of a Management Information System (MIS) that has automated our services including accreditation of TVET institutions, and programmes and the licensing of trainers/ assessors and verifiers. However, Covid-19 slowed our progress towards implementation of the system but we are delighted we are finally there.

What does this ISO certification mean to the Authority?

The attainment of ISO Certification by the Authority means that the Quality

Management System (QMS) we are implementing has been audited and found to comply with the requirements of ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems. In other words, the QMS which has been implemented complies with ISO 9001:2015 Standard, TVETA QMS documents and legal and regulatory requirements.

As an ISO certified organization, what is your philosophy?

As an Authority we were created to regulate and coordinate the TVET subsector in Kenya through the development of a TVET system that meets national needs and aspirations. Our vision is to see the country having a competitive market driven TVET system delivering competent workforce for sustainable development. We value integrity, professionalism, accountability, public participation, teamwork and efficiency. ISO has assisted us by making us appreciate the value of planning and monitoring in our management processes.

What are some of the factors that enabled you to attain this new status?

There are several factors that contributed to the success of this achievement. These include the commitment by our Board of Directors to provide the much needed resources and roadmap for the implementation of these standards. I also recognise and appreciate TVETA staff who worked round the clock to implement the set roadmap to certification.

How was the road map like?

We started by training process owners on implementation. Then the process owners developed Quality Management System documentation, which included policies, procedures, forms and registers needed for the implementation of quality management system. We then appointed ISO champions, who have worked with members

of their departments towards the launch of QMS in July 2019. For successful implementation, we trained the champions on audit who then carried out two internal audits in November, 2019 and in February 2020. Each of those audits was preceded by a management review meeting.

What are the ISO quality management principles? And how are you leveraging on the principles to achieve your mandate?

The ISO 9001:2015 quality management principles are leadership commitment, process approach, continuous improvement and riskbased thinking. Others include evidence-

based decision making, customer focus, engagement of people and relationship management. As the leadership of the Authority we are committed to the implementation and maintenance of the quality management system. This will then create buy-in by all members of staff. Every decision taken has a procedure and this enhances consistency and timeliness in service delivery. We have embraced continuous improvement in our management processes, which has increased customer satisfaction to our services. We have incorporated risk management in all our processes and this has been achieved by putting in place risk assessment and mitigation strategies.

Our services are customer centred and my team is always committed to ensure customer needs are met at all times. Greater clarity and focus on the Authority

objectives has led to increased staff motivation. Last but not least, we believe that for quality to be improved it must be based on evidence. For example, in the current financial year, we conducted an employee satisfaction survey. The recommendations from the survey are informing the various human resource decisions we are currently making.

You are the first Director General of TVET Authority. What are some of your successes?

As I mentioned earlier, the Authority came into existence in 2014 as a result of TVET Act no. 29 of 2013. I was then appointed on 30th April 2015. Since then we have been able to achieve a lot. Together with the Board of Directors and the support of government, we have managed to set all the required structures and operating frameworks from scratch. This include recruiting a competitive pool of staff for all the departments according to our staff establishment. We have also secured sufficient office space at the headquarters in Nairobi and we are in the process of opening three regional offices in Eldoret, Kisumu and Mombasa. 

In terms of regulation, we have developed a number of regulatory and training standards for the sector. These include the National polytechnic standard, ODEL

standard, CBETA standard, Centre of Excellence Standard, Prior Learning and Assessment Recognition (PLAR) Standard, among others. We have been able to accredit more than two thousand TVET institutions while we have conducted quality audits in more than 1500 institutions. In addition, we have been able to implement a management information system which has enabled us to improve service delivery.

Parting shot as for the ISO certification today…

I want to express my sincere gratitude to the TVETA Board for the support and providing an enabling environment through provision of requisite resources and encouragement; all the staff at TVETA for their dedication, commitment, devotion

for better service delivery and the desire to achieve our objectives. May I also commend the Ministry of Education for the policy direction that has guided us sufficiently since inception, the ISO steering committee and internal quality audit team and Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) for their immense contribution that has enabled us to achieve this milestone.