CUK VC on Why Kenya Needs Introduction of Co-operative Education into Mainstream Schooling
When Prof. Kamau Ngamau talks about co-operative education, he doesn’t reach for abstractions. “It fuses knowledge with action,” he says simply. As vice chancellor of the Co-operative University of Kenya (CUK), he has spent years turning that phrase into institutional reality.
CUK’s roots go back to 1952, when it operated as the School of Co-operation. It became the Co-operative College of Kenya in 1967, starting with just 40 students. After decades of evolution, including a stint as a constituent college of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, it received its full university charter in 2016. Today it serves over 8,000 students across certificate, diploma, undergraduate, and postgraduate programs.
Prof. Ngamau says co-operative education, as CUK practices it, deliberately combines academic instruction with practical, work-based experience inside co-operative enterprises and community economic structures. Every program, regardless of field, carries a co-operative training component. Students form savings groups, run agribusiness initiatives, and manage innovation clusters. They don’t just study governance; they practice it.
“Unlike traditional university education, which lays more emphasis on theoretical knowledge,” Ngamau says, “co-operative education places learning within real economic and social systems, allowing students to co-create value while acquiring knowledge.”
The university backs this up with structured partnerships. Through memoranda of understanding with co-operative enterprises, students undertake internships, research projects, and consultancy work. CUK also collaborates with county governments as well as international bodies including the International Co-operative Alliance and Tanzania’s Moshi Co-operative University.
The results, Ngamau argues, show up at graduation. CUK alumni enter the workforce with stronger job readiness than their peers, and a significant number go on to create employment within the co-operative and small business sectors rather than simply seeking it.
Yet the model faces a stubborn obstacle: perception. “Co-operative education has become undervalued compared to other fields of study,” Ngamau says. Enrolment in co-operative programs lags behind other disciplines. Young people are increasingly absent from co-operative society membership. And curricula have struggled to keep pace with a sector that is changing rapidly.
His prescription is earlier introduction of co-operative education into mainstream schooling, stronger policy backing, and genuine industry-academia partnerships — not just in curriculum design, but in hiring graduates who come through these programs.
The stakes, he believes, extend well beyond any single institution. With youth unemployment rising and the job market being reshaped by technology, co-operative education’s emphasis on entrepreneurial thinking, collaborative leadership, and practical resilience is precisely what the moment demands.
“Co-operative education is already intersecting with digital innovation, green economies, and social enterprise,” Ngamau says. “It will become a critical model for addressing 21st-century challenges.”
