An Investigation into the Effectiveness of Public Middle Level Technical Training Colleges in Central and Eastern Provinces in Kenya

Abstract

Technical and vocational education has been looked upon as a catalyst of economic development and social transformation (Republic of Kenya, 1965). It should supply artisan, crafts, technicians required for industrialization of a nation. The training in TIVET need to ensure that there is adequate supply of properly trained human resource to enable industries to perform in line with vision 2030 of acquiring a suitable economic growth (MoEST, 2007).However, parents and employers and other stakeholders have been dissatisfied with TIVET trainees’ performance in national examinations and the level of competence achieved by TIVET graduates. By 2002, industries were querying the competence of graduates from TIVET and even went to the extent of training their own (TIVET Audit Report, 2003; MoEST, 2007). TIVET have been dogged by performance problems. Despite this, many studies continue to be done to investigate factors that cause poor performance in primary and secondary level with TIVET institutes having had little or no research done on their poor performance in Kenya. There was need therefore to get information on what factors contribute to the poor academic achievement (ineffectiveness) that consequently lead to low completion rate among middle level technical training colleges. The research went a step further to establish what should be done to improve effectiveness in these institutions. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n1p245