Keeping Cars on the Road: Obstacles and Opportunities in Vocational Education and Training Processes in Kenya for the Motor Vehicle Service and Repair Industry

Susan Wanuri Ngure 
(School of Management, Edith Cowan University, Western Australia)

Abstract: This paper examines opportunities and obstacles in training processes in the motor vehicle service and repair industry (MVRSI) in Kenya. The paper is a response to on-going debate in the media, the business community and training practitioners to the perceived mismatch between the skills offered by the training institutions and the skill needs of the industry. These challenges have also been raised by the Government of Kenya in two documents: the 2005 Kenya Educational Sector Support Program (KESSP) document Delivering Quality Education and Training to all Kenyans and the Kenya Vision 2030 blueprint (GoK, 2007). Data for this study were collected from previous research papers, government documents and business editorials and reports. In addition, primary data were collected from 19 MVRSI businesses, four vocational education and training (VET) institutions and from four education officers drawn from the Ministry of Education Science and Technology (MoHEST) and the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) and eight VET trainers. Observations were made in the VET institutions and businesses that took part in this study. The findings suggest that VET in Kenya has suffered from six major obstacles: low program funding; duplication of training services; insufficient trained personnel; limited methods of training needs analysis (TNA) data gathering and analysis; inadequate quality control, monitoring and evaluation; poor communication of TNA results to the main stakeholders; and, obstacles within the national training objectives. This paper proposes the following opportunities that the VET sector can take to improve its status: the establishment of a training fund; creation of a training coordinating body for the many providers; strengthening the mandate of KICD to include recruitment, training and remuneration of its personnel; incorporating more methods of TNA data gathering and analysis; strengthening methods of national training objective formulation; and, improving monitoring, evaluation and quality control.

Key words: human resource development; vocational education and training; training needs assessment; training processes

JEL code: M53