Improving Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Kenya for Sustainable Development

Abstract

The quality of workforce that a country produces determines the progress that it makes economically, socially and politically. Technological advancement has influenced the decisions that employers make with regard to the workforce that they employ. To be able to make progress and to improve its economy, a country needs a workforce with specific skills that are instrumental in driving its economy to greater heights in the advent of an ever changing labour market. Achievement of such a dream is dependent on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions whose core mandate is to give individuals opportunities to acquire the much-needed technical skills. Technical and Vocational Education and Training in Kenya has for a long time been relegated to the periphery with the center of focus being put on the basic, secondary and higher education (university being the major beneficiary in the latter This could be attributed to the fact that technical institutions have been viewed negatively by the public in general and the youths specifically. Despite the challenges faced by these institutions, they are critical for the advancement of economies and improvement of the Gross Domestic Products of nations. They are also vital in the provision of skills aimed at reducing the skill gap that has resulted in different organizations importing labour because of the challenges of getting employees with the required skills. Kenya as a country has not made significant strides in the technical sector thus a lot has to be done with regard to TVET. The study was guided by the following objective: to discuss the ways in which Technical and Vocational Education and Training Institutions can be improved in order to meet the demands of the changing labour trends. The main data collection instrument was an interview schedule and the sampling technique that was used was stratified random sampling method. Respondents were sampled from different strata. Data was analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively.