COL Adviser for open education resources (OER) Dr Ishan Abeywardena teamed up with six Master Champions of INVEST-Kenya to run a five-day workshop on institutional policy development on open, distance and flexible learning (ODFL) and OER in Nakuru, Kenya.

The workshop, which was held from 9 to 13 May, 2016, saw the development of 40 draft institutional ODFL/OER policies and enrolled 40 new institutional champions into the INVEST-Kenya initiative. In total, 45 technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions from across Kenya were represented at the workshop.

COL education specialist for Technical and Vocational Skills Development (TVSD) Dr Alison Mead Richardson has been working with six technical training institutes in Kenya since 2010 to build capacity for integrating a flexible and blended (FaB) TVET model. Based on her work, an additional 36 institutions have been nominated to integrate the FaB TVET model. As institutional policy has been identified as a primary activity in the process, this workshop was collaboratively organized by COL’s TVSD and OER for Skills Development initiatives.