Institutional Factors Influencing Acquisition of Vocational Skills by Trainees in Public Vocational Training Centers in Kakamega County-Kenya

Abstract

Vocational Training Centers (VTCs) are anchored in the Technical Vocational Education and Training ACT (2013), which emphases on imparting vocational and technical skills in trainees. The purpose of this study was to determine the institutional factors influencing acquisition of vocational skills by trainees in public vocational training centres in Kakamega County. The study adopted a descriptive survey. The target population of the study was 1740 comprising of 60 county polytechnic, 60 county polytechnic principals, 480 instructors and 1200 second year finalist trainees. A sample size of 282 was picked consisting of 18 county polytechnic principals, 144 instructors and 120 second year finalist trainees as the respondents. Stratified random, purposive and simple random sampling was employed. Questionnaires were used to collect data from county polytechnic principals, instructors and trainees. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study established that instructors were inadequate and the existing ones lacked in-service and industrial updates, financial resources were also inadequate to cater for training facilities and payment of more Board of Management instructors, tools and equipment were inadequate and not up to date and this forced instructors to use teacher-centered methods of instructing.