Revitalizing Technology In Technical,Vocational Education Training Colleges Influence Of The Kenya-China TVET Project On College Outcomes

There has been continuous calls and emphasis on updating and developing mechanisms and tools to identify current and future skills needs,to ensure the relevance of TVET programmes to rapidly changing labour markets,economies and societies.Quality TVET system is increasingly being recognized as the bedrock for economic development worldwide.The quality of education and training is considered a crucial issue in ensuring Technical and Vocational Education and Training(TVET)institutions worldwide.This is due to the fact that quality TVET education guarantees a strong link between skills acquired and the needs of the labour market hence producing learners with superior employability.The major factors that influence the quality of education and training in TVET include among others technology,links between TVET and local industries,and TVET teacher qualification.A well-equipped TVET system plays a vital role in motivating the learners and ensures overall satisfaction leading to improved outcomes.To this far,it is evident that Kenya has made efforts to improve the relevance of vocational training programs so as to guarantee a strong relationship between the classroom and the needs of the labor market.Skills in vocational training are now considered as a viable area in providing middle level knowledge for brains that can handle general issues as opposed to degrees that are about super level of society.To this far,it is evident that Kenya has made efforts to improve the relevance of vocational training programs so as to guarantee a strong relationship between the classroom and the needs of the labor market.Skills in vocational training are now considered as a viable area in providing middle level knowledge for brains that can handle general issues as opposed to degrees that are about super level of society.This research investigated the level of satisfaction of the learners with the number,type and quality of the available learning and teaching resources supplied through an educational collaboration between Kenya and China,as well as their perceived employability.The main aim of this research therefore was,to find out how far the Kenya-China TVET Project is meeting its intended purpose of revitalizing the TVET colleges and increasing access of young people to high-quality skills.This study was hinged on three theories:Globalization,Vocationalism and Knowledge-based economy theories.The study adopted a mixed method research that employed QUAN-QUAL design to investigate the influence of the Kenya-China TVET Project on College outcomes.Multi-stage sampling was used to sample 5 TVET institutions in Kenya from which a sample of 338 students out of 2432 students in the technical departments which were involved in the Kenya-China TVET Project in these colleges was drawn.The data was collected using:Students'Survey,observation checklist as well as documentary study.To test for content validity,the draft questionnaire was subjected to scrutiny by the supervisor and an expert at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development(KICD)whose critiques were taken into consideration and the proposed corrections done.Additionally,the face validity was tested through a pilot study of 20 students from Coast Institute of Technology who did not take part in the main study.Further,this study employed internal consistency technique to test for reliability of the research questionnaire.Cronbach's,a value for the four constructs i.e.quality of learning,Satisfaction with the learning resources,Students'academic self-perception and students'employability self-perception was 0.732,0.884,0.834 and 0.857 respectively,and thus the instrument was found to be consistent and reliable to measure the variables of the study.Out of the 338 questionnaires distributed to students 281 of them were found complete and valid for analysis representing 83.1%response rate.Descriptive statistics was used to analyze quantitative data by filling frequencies and percentages presented in table and charts.Open ended questions,documentary study and observations was analyzed qualitatively in narrative form and also presented qualitatively.There was a wide gender disparity with majority of the respondents being male and majority of the respondents were youthful(under the age of 24 years).Further,on parents'highest level of academic qualification,majority of the respondents revealed that both their mothers and fathers had gone up to secondary school.However,majority of the respondents revealed that their mothers were housewives while their fathers were in average income occupations.On who pays their school fees,majority of the respondents were of the opinion that their parents pay their school fees and majority of them were from arid counties of Kenya explaining why they faced challenges in paying their school fees.All the constructs testing students'perceived employability,students'academic performance and students'satisfaction had a strong impact since the mean was far above 3.0 in a five point Likert scale.The items also displayed a small deviation from the mean an indication that the scores were homogeneous.With respect to the challenges facing TVET in Kenya,majority of the students were of the opinion that they encountered problems in paying their school fees(mean=3.68);and their college had inadequate number of lecturers(mean=2.36).However,majority of the students felt that they received quality teaching(mean=3.67);their college had adequate learning and teaching resources(rmean=3.64);and industrial attachment was taken serious in their respective colleges(mean=2.37).This shows that the efforts being put forward by the government,including the Kenya-China TVET project,to solve the challenges facing TVET is slowly bearing fruits.The results from the observation and the document guide validated the above findings.The study revealed that TVET institutions in Kenya had been revitalized through the provision of modern teaching and learning equipment which has led to vocationalisation of TVET education in Kenya;hence bringing about the provision of quality training leading to employment.Also,there has been improved collaboration between TVET institutions and local industries which has led to provision of industrial attachment therefore ensuring that TVET students get exposed to the real labour market while still in college.Further the collaboration has changed the image of TVET in Kenya due to the improved quality of the programs offered in TVET.The TVET students had also improved confidence in themselves and they had acquired employability skills.The findings of this this study further revealed that the government of Kenya has increased its efforts in ensuring there is availability of up to date equipment which has been one of the biggest challenges faced by the TVET institutions This is in line with the reforms being done in the Kenyan TVET system to equip the TVET institutions with modem teaching and learning equipment to improve the quality of training in those institutions.The results from the observation ofthe workshops in the selected colleges confirmed this view.For instance,in one of the colleges the ratio of machine to student was 1:2 and this ensured effective teaching and learning.The study also revealed that some of the institutions received equipment they did not have a ready curriculum for hence lied unused in the workshops.Additionally,only a few teachers had been trained on the operation of the new teaching and learning equipment hence there is high teaching workload in the TVET colleges.The study further exposed that the inadequacy in the number of TVET trainers has compelled most of the institutions to opt for multi-grade teaching or even left the learners to learn by themselves while institutions with access to financial resources ended up hiring part-time tutors who were not qualified as most of them were diploma certificate holders.This view was further held as true due to the high number of teaching hours in the sampled colleges,whereby the work load for all the sampled colleges was way above the set 15 hours a week for technical institutions and 6 hours a week for the Technical universities.The results of this study can be of help to teachers,administrators and education stakeholders in implementing CBT in TVET colleges in Kenya aimed at improving the performance and learners'future employability.Further,with Kenya's ambition plan to become an industrialized country by the year 2030 being anchored around the vocational college education,I am hoping the findings of this research study provides important insights to strengthen educational collaborations between Kenya and China which will help to reform the vocational colleges to meet the expected quality.The future researchers are encouraged to sample more TVET colleges to include in their studies.Also,the study relied mainly on the information given by students and data collected from document study and researcher observation.We recommend future studies to include a survey to teachers and interview the college heads and other educational stakeholders so as to get wider view of the real situation in the TVET colleges.Further,a comparative study should be carried to investigate the difference in influence between Arid and Non-Arid areas of Kenya.Further,by exploring the potential influences of the quality of learning and teaching resources on student learning outcomes the study contributes to a better understanding of the importance of equipping TVET institutions with modern equipment and the need to strengthen the link between TVET institutions and the local industries.The results proved beyond doubts that the provision of modern teaching and learning equipment in TVET not only influences students'academic performance but also their employability skills.Secondly,the study exposed that developing countries can learn from each other's development which will help in achieving common development.Further,the study intertwined three theories which are;Globalization,Vocationalism and Knowledge based economy to explain the importance of a well equipment TVET system in national development.Globalization is described as a set of forces that affect the social,economic and political aspects of life.Vocationalism emphasizes on knowledge economy which responds to the effects of globalization in the world.A knowledge-based economy describes the trends in advancement of economies towards greater dependence on high level of skills.knowledge,technology and information.Finally,the concept of triangulation used in social science research was applied in the research method,design,and statistical analysis and software packages.