Individual and Institutional Determinants of Trainees’ Enrolment in Public Technical Vocational Education and Training Institutions in Nakuru County, Kenya

Abstract

One of the goals of being educated is to attain skills in preparation for world of work and become a self-reliant individual who can participate in nation building. Such skills are gained in tertiary institutions of learning and one of the growing fields is the Technical Vocational Education and Training institutions (TVETs). The purpose of this study was to investigate the individual and institutional determinants of trainee enrolment in public, TVETS in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study focused on the influence of entry behaviour based on grades scored in secondary examination, influence of socioeconomic status of trainees, influence of courses on offer in the TVETs and the influence of trainee’s attitudes on enrolment in the TVETs in Nakuru County. This research is based on the Social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making (SLTCDM) by Krumboltz (1976). The theory focuses on developing career readiness through implementation of learning theory in school-to-work programs. This study employed descriptive survey research design. The sample size consisted of 12 TVETs, 30 trainers and 331 trainees drawn from the target population of 24 public TVETs, 150 trainers and 2385 trainees from entire Nakuru County by random sampling. TVET principals and trainers were sampled according to Gay and Airasian (2003) recommendation of 20% to 50% for small population while trainee sampling used the Cochran (1977) formula for large population. Data was collected by use of interview schedule for principals, questionnaires for trainers and trainees and document analysis. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS software version 20 and summarized into frequency tables, percentages and standard deviations. Qualitative data was subjected to content analysis thematically with extraction of relevant information. The four hypotheses were tested at 0.05 percent significance level using regression and correlation coefficient. The findings of the correlation between grades scored in secondary examination and enrolment in TVETs showed that, Since P value is .210 > P=.05, HO1 was rejected and the conclusion was that there was significant relationship between grades scored in Kenya Certificate of secondary Education (KCSE) and enrolment of trainees. The findings of the ANOVA test on socioeconomic status showed that, H02: Since p-value = 0.002< P-value = 0.05, H02 was rejected and the conclusion made was that there was significant mean difference between socioeconomic status and trainees’ enrolment. H03 was accepted and the conclusion was that there is no significant mean difference between courses on offer and enrolment of trainees in public TVETs as determined by one-way ANOVA (F (1, 329) =0.303, P= 0.671). The analysis of findings showed that, the p-value = 0.3883>P-value = 0.05, hence H04 was accepted and concluded there is no significant mean difference between trainees’ attitudes and enrolment of trainees in public TVETs. The findings led to the conclusion that; grades scored in KCSE determined enrolment in TVETs since it formed the basis for placement in tertiary institutions. Low socioeconomic status caused trainees to fail to enroll in TVETs or to dropout of training due to non-payment of fees. Courses on offer by TVETs could lead to increased or decreased enrolments in TVETs depending on extent of meeting trainees’ needs. The researcher recommended that, TVETs should offer courses tailored for all grades from A to E and courses that meet needs of trainees and entire community. HELB loans and bursaries should be released before trainees reporting date to cushion the needy trainees of low socioeconomic status. TVETs to use success stories of their graduates to create good image and erase negative publicity and negative attitude.