In this video, William, who was disabled in an accident, talks about being part of the ILO’s welding apprenticeship programme and how he envisions himself as an entrepreneur making assistive devices for people with disabilities.
William Loroo from Kenya’s Turkana region faced a major setback in 2013 when an accident broke his leg and shattered his dreams. Through online research, he landed a welding scholarship from the ILO at the East Africa Institute of Welding, where he gained skills in communication, literacy, leadership and teamwork, as well as welding. William developed a strong interest in inert gas welding and now envisions becoming an entrepreneur who designs assistive devices such as crutches, walking sticks, and wheelchairs. He also hopes to train others with physical challenges to help them earn a living and live independently.
Piloting a training guide to promote social cohesion in collaboration with TVET practitioners in various countries.
Promoting Social Cohesion and Peaceful Coexistence in Fragile Contexts through TVET is a guide that was developed to strengthen the role of TVET practitioners as active promoters of social cohesion. It provides practical guidance to trainers and managers of training centres on how to adapt delivery to mixed groups of students; embed conflict-resolution skills, cooperation and other relevant core skills into training curricula; and create conflict-sensitive, inclusive and diverse learning environments for all. The guide sets out a four-day curriculum to build the capacities of TVET trainers in facilitating core skills in social cohesion, so that they are able to include social cohesion elements in their skills development curricula.
Sample four-day curriculum:
Day 1: Creating the learning group and wider context
Day 2: Understanding social cohesion in fragile contexts working with youth and adults – the role of the trainer
Day 3: Exploring resources: what we bring and what else is out there to promote inclusion
Day 4: Assessing social cohesion and preparing for change
The guide was piloted under PROSPECTS in Kenya, Jordan, Ethiopia and Uganda, in cooperation with the Peaceful Change Initiative. A total of 73 trainers took part in a training-of-trainers session on incorporating conflict-sensitive methodologies and elements into the design and planning of vocational training programmes. In the Kenya pilot, occupational standards for technical trainers and the corresponding teacher-training curriculum were revised to take account of the role of trainers in promoting social cohesion and peaceful coexistence, following the guide.
In this video, Dickson Njoroge shares his inspiring journey through the beauty industry and how his diploma has opened doors for him, including the potential to apply for government jobs as a trainer.
Encouraged by his family, Dickson pursued cosmetology after high school and spent over three years honing his skills. With extensive experience, client recommendations, and photos of his work, he earned a Level 6 Diploma in Cosmetology through the Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) process. He reflects on how the beauty industry has evolved with new technologies and specialised treatments. He shares experiences starting from childhood visits to his auntie's salon, where his passion for beauty began, till the date he graduated with accreditation.
PROSPECTS helped design and develop an inclusive RPL system to certify the skills of refugee and host community workers.
The value of RPL has long been recognised in Kenyan legal and policy frameworks. The National Industrial Training Authority (NITA), part of the Ministry of Labour and Social Protection, has implemented a type of RPL since the 1960s, in the form of Government Trade Tests. In an effort to standardize these tests, the Kenya National Qualification Framework Act No. 22 of 2014 mandated the Kenya National Qualifications Authority (KNQA) to coordinate the development of national policies on RPL. A national policy was drafted in 2018, but not implemented. PROSPECTS responded to this gap in application by supporting the KNQA and relevant national bodies to develop a framework, implementation guidelines and assessment tools that were piloted with groups of refugees and host community members.
Under PROSPECTS, the ILO’s first line of support was to the Ministry of Education, through the KNQA, and involved setting up a National Implementation Committee on RPL (NIC-RPL) and a National Advisory Committee on RPL (NAC-RPL) and building their capacities. The next stage involved providing technical assistance and guidance on developing an RPL policy framework and implementation guidelines. In doing so, the PROSPECTS team was able to encourage the inclusion of language that made the extension of RPL services to refugees and asylum-seekers explicitly. This then provided grounds for piloting in the refugee hosting areas of Garissa and Turkana Counties, particularly as PROSPECTS Kenya already had memoranda of understanding with the County governments.
To give practical effect to the policy framework and guidelines, support was also provided for capacity-building and piloting. Fifteen members of the NIC-RPL received training and extended coaching sessions, which proved critical in the development of RPL national training standards and practitioners’ guidelines.
In May 2021, an RPL assessment conducted in collaboration with the NITA and the TVET Curriculum Development Assessment and Certification Council identified five occupational profiles for a pilot intervention: textiles, automotive mechanics, welding, hairdressing, beauty therapy and agriculture. In all, 38 young refugee and host community members were assessed in these different occupational profiles.
Following the pilot, the Cabinet approved the RPL policy framework in April 2022, preparing the ground for country-wide implementation. In the same month, the ILO supported the development of a national implementation plan, in which stakeholders from, among others, accreditation bodies, TVET colleges and employers’ and workers’ organizations participated. In May 2022, a costing exercise was commissioned to calculate the Differentiated Unit Cost of RPL, in order to determine the cost of RPL processes and put forward recommendations for financing models. PROSPECTS also provided technical assistance to identify occupations that required proof of competency in sub-sectors that were attracting foreign and domestic investment and that showed potential for considerable decent-job creation. This helped focus efforts on operationalizing RPL based on demand and contributions to economic development.
The ILO also provided support to train national RPL practitioners on assessment tools and methodologies to scale RPL nationally. This included the development of an RPL Management Information System with the KNQA and TVET Curriculum Development, Assessment and Certification Council (CDACC). The MIS was integrated into all TVET CDACC centres nationally, including in Turkana and Garissa counties. PROSPECTS also trained and accredited RPL assessors, facilitators and verifiers. This included development of an RPL Practitioners Continuous Professional Development (CPD) curriculum at the national TVET trainers college, the Kenya School TVET (KSTVET).
As of April 2025, he national RPL system that PROSPECTS has helped operationalize certified 4,741 candidates, of which 905 were refugees. In one pilot, PROSPECTS collaborated with Base Titanium, a subsidiary of an Australian mining company, whereby 28 refugee and host community employees of the company were assessed, 22 of whom were found to be competent and so were certified through RPL. This helped the employer facilitate the movement of staff between its various locations in Kenya and abroad. Other private sector actors, such as Kengen (an electricity producer) and the Kenya Power and Lighting Company, invested their own resources in implementing RPL exercises and having their employees assessed.
The PROSPECTS team also coordinated with other donors in Kenya to encourage them to include RPL as part of the skills development programmes they were funding. In the absence of RPL, individuals trained through these donor-funded projects would ultimately lack formal certification. PROSPECTS complemented activities under the Swiss-funded Skills for Life programme in Kakuma, for example, by certifying trainees through RPL, so that they graduated with a qualification.
Building on its active role in supporting the development and rollout of RPL, PROSPECTS Kenya leveraged opportunities to invest in further RPL curriculum development. For example, the ILO had established a partnership with an ICT training organization, Learning Lions, to train young people in coding, web design and animation. However, the certificate issued at the end of the course was not nationally recognized. In collaboration with the Technical and Vocational Education Training Authority (TVETA), PROSPECTS supported a review of the Learning Lions curriculum and used this as a basis to establish an RPL curriculum in creative design and web development. Refugee and host community trainees then had the opportunity to access the national RPL process and have their credentials certified.
The PROSPECTS team worked closely with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to adapt the Haba Haba voluntary savings scheme to meet the needs of refugees.
Prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Kenya developed a keen interest in extending social protection to workers in the informal economy. PROSPECTS, together with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, conducted a study of social protection coverage and gaps for workers in the informal economy, including refugees. Based on the outcomes, the programme team supported the extension of the national strategy for social protection to the informal economy. The refugee aspect was mainstreamed in the strategy, to include them from the outset. This was done through various stakeholder consensus-building workshops and events. In November 2023, the strategy was launched and implemented in two counties.
In parallel, the Kenyan National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) approached the ILO to develop and cost a universal maternity benefit for the country. PROSPECTS joined forces with an EU-financed social protection and public financial management project to design and cost a maternity income benefit for women in the informal economy. Female refugees enrolled in the NHIF would also receive a new maternity cash benefit. Several workshops were conducted with key stakeholders to agree on the design.
As refugees in Kenya were working almost exclusively in the informal economy and had limited access to banking or other savings mechanisms for old age, the programme team worked closely with the National Social Security Fund (NSSF) to adapt the Haba Haba voluntary savings scheme to the needs of refugees. The decision to do so stemmed from a feasibility study conducted by the ILO, which identified the main barriers to refugee participation in the scheme and a considerable stakeholder interest to develop a joint national roadmap for including refugees in the scheme. One of the key issues was lack of proper documentation, which prevented many refugees from enrolling in the scheme. In response, the registration requirements were modified and continuous dialogue between the NSSF and the Department of Refugee Services facilitated effective coordination. In addition to simplifying the registration processes, the adaptations included mobile-based platforms so that refugees did not need to rely on banking infrastructure, flexible contribution structures and the option to make early withdrawals in case of repatriation. Information materials in several languages were also provided and community outreach efforts were made. The outreach activities by partners were accompanied by financial literacy programmes targeting refugees. Bringing all stakeholders together helped overcome some entrenched barriers – for example, the Department of Refugee Services accelerated the issuance of refugee IDs in partnership with the National Registration Bureau, helping refugees obtain the necessary documentation for inclusion in the scheme. This adaptation of a social security scheme is an important development in moving away from humanitarianism and towards a more sustainable development approach to refugee support in Kenya.
Find out more about the Haba Haba savings scheme here.
In this video, certified FE trainer Hilda Thuo explains how the ILO module on financial education has helped develop the resilience of refugee- and host community-led small businesses in Kakuma, Kenya.
Hilda Thuo, Livelihoods Officer with the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) and a certified financial education trainer, really appreciates the participatory approach of the ILO module on financial education and finds it highly effective at engaging participants. She is now a strong advocate for promoting financial education and wants to reach out to more business people in the community. The LWF has incorporated financial education into all its livelihood support interventions in Kakuma, Kenya and so far has trained 180 people from refugee and host communities using the ILO's financial education module.
In collaboration with the Turkana County government in Kenya, PROSPECTS supported the paving of the Lodwar fresh produce market using an Employment-Intensive Investment Programmes (EIIP) approach to link infrastructure development with employment creation, poverty reduction, and local economic and social development.
In partnership with the Turkana County government in Kenya, the PROSPECTS programme supported the paving of the Lodwar fresh produce market using durable cobblestone technology. The project was implemented through the ILO’s Employment Intensive Investment Programme (EIIP), with the county government headquarters providing the venue for training, helping local workers build skills in cobblestone paving. The project promoted the use of locally sourced materials, provided skills training, and created employment opportunities for the local community.
Find out more about the PROSPECTS programme’s wider learning on youth engagement.
By rehabilitating key water infrastructure using labour-based methods and training water resource operators, the initiative bolstered camel-milk production, tripling output and generating new jobs.
Following three years of severe drought in Garissa County, camels emerged as a critical source of resilience – providing both nutritious milk and a sustainable livelihood – particularly for women, young people and the elderly in the villages. The PROSPECTS team adopted a market systems approach to strengthen the camel-milk value chain. By rehabilitating key water infrastructure using labour-based methods and training water resource operators, the initiative bolstered camel-milk production, tripling output and generating new jobs. The establishment of the Kasha Camel Milk Collection Centre empowered women through entrepreneurship, raising hygiene standards and expanding market access.
