This archive report was first published on 7 October 2019.
Published on October 7, 2019, a study by Zizi Afrique Foundation's Ujana360 project has shed light on the factors influencing the choice of courses by Kenyan youths.
The study, conducted on 30 vocational training centres, found a significant imbalance in gender enrollment, with 60% of the 3,183 students being male and the remaining 40% being female.
Interestingly, certain courses such as building technology, metal processing technology, and carpentry and joinery had no female students enrolled across all institutions, while fashion design and garment making, and hairdressing and beauty therapy were predominantly female courses.
However, ICT emerged as the most popular course in both genders, with 108 male and 113 female students registering for the course.
The study also identified poor infrastructure and disparity in entry levels as challenges to the implementation of TVET curricula, with one trainer commenting, 'how do you teach a Class Eight dropout and a form Four graduate in the same class, without demoralising one, or leaving the other behind.'
Furthermore, the study highlighted the importance of language of instruction, with many school dropouts struggling to communicate in English, while those who had completed secondary school preferred English.
The study was conducted in 30 vocational training centres, both public and private, in 11 counties: Nairobi, Machakos, Kitui, Mombasa, Nyeri, Kisumu, Kericho, Turkana, Narok, Embu, and Siaya.
