Building an oasis of professional talent

As China urges its enterprises to expand overseas, one firm has found opportunities for vocational training in Kenya

"The profits are not big now, but the prospects are surely very bright," said Si Yanxuan, chief representative in East Africa for AVIC International Holding Corp.

AVIC International is a service provider of vocational training in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The joint training project launched in January 2010 with Kenya's Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology will help train around 10,000 craftsmen or mechanics each year who can contribute to the development of the nation's sugar producing, agriculture machinery and vehicle maintenance industries.

Kenya aims to become a "middle-income country providing a high quality life to all its citizens by the year 2030", according to the government's Vision 2030 program.

Although it is the biggest and most advanced economy in eastern and central Africa, Kenya remains a developing economy, with around half of its 41.6 million people living in poverty. The nation's agricultural sector, which employs around 75 percent of the workforce, accounted for 28 percent of Kenya's GDP in 2011, while industry and manufacturing accounted for just 16 percent, according to the World Bank.

Vocational training remains largely unknown in most African countries, which has impeded their economic development.

China's vocational training projects will help them boost their skilled workforce and unlock their economies' growth potential, Si said.

"China should invest more in Africa to improve bilateral trade rather than just sell products to the continent. In addition to agriculture and manufacturing, more efforts should be made to help China's service sector, especially small and medium companies, enter the African market," said Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman and secretary-general of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

AVIC International has been doing business in Kenya since 1995, when it started selling aviation products, vehicles and construction machinery to the Kenyan government.

"As the lifespan of this equipment is normally quite lengthy, we have turned our attention to other areas in Kenya in order to drum up more business," Si said.

AVIC International won a $100 million contract with the Kenyan education ministry in 2010 to help boost the research capabilities of Kenyan university laboratories, in line with the aims of Kenya Vision 2030.

"We are commissioned to design and construct the labs, as well as supply and install the electronic, mechanical and experimental equipment and provide parts. In addition to training students and teachers, we are also contracted to set up the college departments, draft the curriculum, and provide teaching materials," Si said.

All of the equipment has been transported to the 10 universities. More than 300 machine tools and 600 experimental platforms for teaching had been installed and adjusted by December.

Training system

A group of 30 Chinese maintenance workers accompanied the installation of the machines and gave on-site instruction to Kenyan teachers about their operation and maintenance, said Liang Bin, a project manager of AVIC International's Kenya office.

"The first group of 25 teachers completed their four-month training in December 2011 at China's Inner Mongolia Technical College of Mechanics and Electrics and Shaanxi Hengtong Intelligent Machine Co Ltd. A group of Chinese experts gave them follow-up training at Kenyan universities last year, which focused on machine maintenance and failure recovery," Liang said.

Francis Gitonge, a teacher at Kenya Polytechnic University College, a constituent college of the University of Nairobi, said that the training includes both skills and degree training.

"Local people are entitled to enroll in the one-year training program to become a craftsman or a two-year program to receive a certificate for an annual fee of 30,000 Kenyan shillings ($346). They can also take a four-year degree program costing 70,000 Kenyan shillings annually," he said.

"Skilled workers can be employed as machinery operatives earning around 20,000 Kenyan shillings a month," Gitonge said.

Though the training program has just started, big companies such as the Mumias Sugar Co and West Kenya Sugar Co Ltd "have talked with the ministry and the college to solve their shortage of technicians. In addition, they hope the universities in the training program will produce machine parts and molds needed in production," said C.T. Akumu Owuor, director of the technical and vocational education and training at Kenya Polytechnic University College.

Si said that orders for producing these parts and molds will come as soon as talks about technical issues are concluded.

"Kenya is famous for its secondhand car market with the majority of brands coming from Japan. But spare parts are expensive and they take a long time to reach Kenya. The market potential is great for these training centers to produce these parts as many auto parts dealers have already approached the universities regarding production," Si said.

He added that some Chinese companies in Kenya's construction sector are also interested in subcontracting parts production to the training centers after evaluating cost and quality issues.

"Meanwhile, boosting vocational training programs in Africa will greatly drive up China's exports of high-tech products and services," Si said.

"This is our first vocational training project and we must make it successful to build up our brand to win future deals."

He added that AVIC International is extending its vocational training cooperation to Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and South Sudan.

"Competition is fierce and the market has enough players from Japan and South Korea. But our training centers can be used for teaching as well as parts production, rather than only serving as labs for scientific research," Si said.

"We see great opportunities from Africa's industrialization integrated with its skilled workforce, a model which proved successful in China in the past decades."