Technical, Vocational Education and Training Institutions’ Capacities Impact on Manpower Development for The Realization of Economic Pillar of the Kenya Vision 2030.

Abstract

Developing countries are now looking at Technical, Vocational education and Training as a vehicle to propel them into being among industrialized nations in the world. Efforts are now being concerted in those countries to refurbish and revamp technical institutions to help them realize the dream. It is on this basis that Kenya, just like other developing countries has embraced TVET as a key driver to Human Resource Development to facilitate her ambitious economic development plan Kenya Vision 2030. As such, various reforms were initiated at TVET institutions such as Curriculum reforms to enhance its relevance, provision of adequate and qualified Trainers, enhancement of infrastructural development and provision of adequate teaching and learning resources among other measures. As the clock ticks toward the year 2030, the target year for which envisaged development needs to have been realized, this study aimed at establishing the capacity of TVET institutions to produce relevant manpower for the realization of the economic pillar of the Kenya Vision 2030 development agenda. The study aimed at; establishing the relevance of courses at TVET institutions in view of the country’s’ development aspirations, the entry qualifications of Trainees and the competency of Trainers as reflected by their qualifications. The study was grounded in theoretical foundations of Human Capital Theory. The correlation research design was used for the study. The study was carried out in 10 TVET institutions that had been in existence more than 5 years prior to the date of the study in Vihiga, Kakamega, Busia and Bungoma Counties and all companies that offer internship opportunities to TVET Trainees. A target population was 8001 Trainees, 100 heads of department, 10 Human Resource Managers and 10 principals. Questionnaires, interview schedules, observation and document analysis guide were principle instruments for data collection. The study established that majority of Trainees were pursuing courses that were irrelevant to development of skills in line with country’s’ development aspirations; the initial qualification of Trainees had low entry qualifications, a situation that was likely to jeopardize their ability to develop key skills for envisaged economic development and Trainers though majority were university graduates and posted by Teachers’ Service Commission, lacked foundation in Technical Training is a critical component of TVET training. The study concluded that TVET institutions were ill- prepared to facilitate manpower development in line with country’s economic development aspirations.