History of KAB [Archives:2008/1177/Business & Economy]

At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s, the ILO implemented several projects in Kenya's small and medium enterprise development and vocational education sectors. These ILO projects involved a number of government institutions and private institutions such as the Federation of Kenyan Enterprises (FKE). Though there was a keen demand for entrepreneurship education in Kenya, no specific training programmes were then available.

To close this gap, funds were provided in 1996 from the ILO Geneva and the ILO International Training Centre (ITCILO) in Turin to develop an entrepreneurship education programme for institutions of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). A workshop was organised in Turin with the participation of Dr. G. Manu from ITCILO, Mr. J. Thiongo, a Kenyan consultant and Prof. R. Nelson from the University of Illinois, USA to develop the KAB training materials for trainers and instructors of TVET institutions. The materials were then field tested in Kenya, finalized and printed.

Entrepreneurship education that was inspired by KAB and Improve Your Business (IYB)” became part of the national curricula for vocational training in Kenya.

In the following years