Institutional Factors Influencing Technical Skill Development Under Competency-Based Education and Training in Nyeri County

Abstract

Despite the implementation of the Competency-Based Education and Training (CBET) programme in Kenya's technical institutions, trainees still lack adequate practical engineering tool-handling skills. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of institutional factors on the development of practical engineering tool-handling skills among trainees under the CBET programme in technical institutions in Nyeri County. The study was guided by Experiential Learning Theory of David Kolb. A descriptive research survey design was adopted in this study. The study targeted six principals, six Industrial Liaison Officers (ILOs), 265 trainers and 1,560 trainees from the six technical institutions in Nyeri County. Simple random sampling using 10% of the trainers' population was used to get a sample size of 27 trainers. Yamane's formula was employed to determine the sample size of 318 trainees using proportionate stratified sampling. The study employed questionnaires and an interview schedule to collect data, where institutional principals and ILOs were interviewed, while questionnaires were administered to trainers and trainees. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations, while qualitative data were analysed thematically. The findings of the study reveal that institutional factors moderately influenced practical engineering tool-handling skills, with 46.9%–59.1% of trainees and 48.1% -59.2% of trainers agreeing that institutional resources supported practical engineering training. The study's recommendations include strengthening industry partnerships and institutions to invest in modern training equipment. The study's findings will provide insights that can inform the improvement of CBET implementation and enhance practical engineering tool-handling skills development in TVET institutions.