Social Determinants of Female Enrolment in Engineering Courses in Public Technical, Vocational and Education Institution in Kakamega County, Kenya

Abstract

In the recent years the government and other educational stakeholders have put several initiatives in place in order to increase women participation in Technical, vocational, education and training (TVET) courses. For women to be economically empowered, they need to acquire technical skills for employment. Despite, these efforts underrepresentation of women in TVET engineering courses continues to be a challenge in Kenya. This study sought to establish how social determinants influence enrolment of female students in TVET engineering courses in public TVET institutions in Kakamega County, Kenya. A Target population of 3, registrars, 3559 students, 62 tutors and one County TVET officer was involved in the study. The students and tutors were randomly sampled while purposive sampling was used to get the County officer. A sample size of 20 per cent was determined from the target population for the tutors. Census method was applied for the registrars. The sample size of 371 respondents was determined. This study used questionnaires to get information from students and tutors while interview schedule were used for the registrars and County officer. Descriptive and inferential statistics was used to analyze data. The study revealed that social determinants such as gender stereotypes, societal perceptions, lack of role models and parental factors greatly influence enrolment of female students. The study recommends that the government through the Ministry of Education State department of TVET and other education stakeholders should come up with ways of reducing negative perceptions of female enrolment in engineering courses, increase female role models and provide full sponsorship of female TVET students.