Bill proposes creation of body to oversee management of TVET trainers
The National Assembly Education Committee chaired by Tinderet MP Julius Melly at Bunge Tower in Nairobi on May 13, 2025.
Kenya may soon have an independent body to oversee the management of trainers in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) institutions if a new law is passed in Parliament.
The draft Technical and Vocational Trainers Service Council Bill, 2025, seeks to establish a dedicated council that will ring-fence the recruitment, deployment, promotion, and human resource development of TVET trainers, taking over functions currently done by the Public Service Commission (PSC).
The Bill was proposed by the Kenya Association of Technical Training Institutions (KATTI) and is currently in the proposal stage. It has been presented to the National Assembly’s Education Committee, with lawmakers expressing full support and promising to fast-track it through the legislative process.
“We will support this Bill and fast-track it so that we have in place a proper, functioning TVET service in our country,” said Committee Chair and Tinderet MP Julius Melly.
If enacted, the Technical and Vocational Trainers Service Council will maintain a national register of TVET trainers, manage their recruitment and transfers, handle disciplinary processes, designate trainers to administrative positions, and ensure compliance with training standards.
It will also establish and abolish offices in the trainer service and serve as an intergovernmental coordination body, linking national TVET institutions with county-managed vocational training centers.
KATTI is banking on this council to resolve longstanding inefficiencies in the management of trainers and safeguard the quality of training in the sector.
“Training is different from teaching, as it deals with practical skills. As it is, the PSC treats trainers like general civil servants, delaying decisions on matters such as maternity leave or disciplinary action, sometimes for years which affects training continuity,” KATTI Governing Council member Daniel Randa told the legislators.
He explains that the delays emanate from the bureaucracies along the chain of approval whereby a Ministerial Human Resource Management Committee has to sit and discuss a particular matter.
The challenge he says us that this committee meets in times that are not very well specified hence by the time a matter is concluded, the decision made ends up serving little or no value.
The draft bill is grounded in a 2018 High Court ruling that nullified a TSC circular transferring TVET teachers to the PSC, citing lack of legislative backing.
The ruling rendered the continued management of trainers under PSC legally tenuous, exposing the sector to a regulatory vacuum.
“That judgment left us exposed, and technically, we are holding trainers illegally, and reverting to TSC would introduce fresh complications as the Commission’s recruitment is rigid and focused on teaching subjects, while TVET emphasises skill-based training,” said KATTI Chairman David Mwangi.
Dr Mwangi noted that the bill is designed to fit within the government’s broader goal of producing highly skilled graduates to drive the country’s industrialization agenda under Vision 2030.
“We are implementing Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET), which focuses on skill acquisition over knowledge and the TSC’s model simply cannot support this. We need a body tailored to TVET’s evolving needs,” he said.
The Education Committee's legal team will tweak the proposed legislation to align with the functions of the national government ahead of forwarding it to Budget and Appropriations Committee before returning for final review and presentation on the floor of the House.