10th-Feb-2026 | 2.2 mins read

Career Guidance Is Not A Side Hustle. It’s The Backbone Of CBE
Career guidance has become the quiet thorn in the flesh of Kenya’s Competency-Based Education reforms. We have been talking confidently about pathways, competencies, and learners’ potential, yet the people who stand between policy and the child — teachers — are often navigating a terrain they haven’t been trained for.

A national study of teachers across 35 counties (Teachers Perspective of Career Guidance and Development Training) reveals a reality we can no longer ignore: the success of CBE is tied directly to the career guidance capacity of those guiding learners. And right now, that capacity is fragile.

Most teachers believe career guidance is essential. They know their influence is immense. They see learners struggling with choices that will shape their lives. But more than half have never received formal training, and the majority openly acknowledge that their knowledge is limited. This isn’t a lack of passion. It’s a lack of infrastructure.

The barriers tell the story. Training is expensive. Recognition is missing. Workloads are overwhelming. Access is uneven. Schools want career guidance, but few have the structures to support it. Teachers want preparation, but the system treats career guidance as an optional extra rather than a professional specialization.

What is striking is how quickly this could change. Teachers are clear about what would unlock their participation: formal recognition by TSC, promotion pathways, remuneration incentives, flexible training formats, and affordable learning options. Ninety percent say they would enroll immediately if CGD qualifications were recognized in the career progression framework. That is an extraordinary level of alignment—and a signal that the gatekeeper is not motivation but policy.

This is where the country must make a strategic decision. If career guidance remains voluntary, informal, or treated as a side duty, then pathway choices under CBE will remain uneven, inequitable, and in some cases, accidental. Learners will continue to depend on guesswork, hearsay, or the strongest adult opinion in the room. And the promise of CBE — to personalise learning and prepare young people for meaningful futures — will remain theoretical.

But if Kenya chooses to professionalise career guidance — to recognise qualifications, to support teachers with structured pathways, to embed CGD in CPD frameworks, and to invest in flexible, scalable training — everything shifts. Career guidance becomes a system, not an afterthought. Teachers gain confidence. Schools gain clarity. Learners gain direction. And the country gains a generation that understands how to navigate opportunity, not just survive school.

If Kenya wants CBE to work, it must therefore start by equipping the people who make CBE real: the teachers guiding our children’s futures, one decision at a time.