Factors influencing female students enrollment in technical courses: a case of Matili technical training institute, Kenya

Abstract

Career patterns are influenced by a variety of forces, one of which is gender-role Stereotype. The study determined the factors influencing female students‟ enrollment in technical courses. The study was guided by the following objectives: to determine the influence of financial factors on students enrollment, to investigate the influence of cultural factors on female students enrollment on technical courses and to examine the effect of sociological factors and role models on female students‟ enrollment in technical courses. The study adopted case study research design .The study employed the Krejcie and Morgan formulae and a sample size of 219 was used. The data collection instruments consisted of the questionnaire and the interview schedule. Piloting was done to establish the reliability of the research instruments by use of half split technique where questionnaires were administered to students of the neighboring institute, Kisiwa Technical. In this study multiple regressions were used to analyze data and the findings were presented using APA tables. The study provided valuable insights on factors influencing female students‟ enrollment in technical training institutes in Kenya generally. It was found that cultural factors such early marriages, female genital mutilation, cultural beliefs and time spent on doing house hold chores make girl to have little time to devote to their academic work. It was also noted that financial factors such the fees paid for the technical courses and expensive learning materials and books made parents to discourage their daughters on choosing the technical courses. The girls are also not informed about possible future salaries and their abilities and are therefore not motivated to choose technical courses. Psychological factors also influenced the enrollment. The findings show that majority of the respondents indicated that technical courses are masculine and are meant to be pursued by boys. The study also indicated that girls perform equally well on many technical skills and attitudes assessment in the elementary school years and what they need is role models to encourage them to pursue the technical courses in their tertiary education programmes. It is hoped that the findings of this study will help the ministry of education to come up with ways of encouraging female students to enroll into technical training institutes and that the college administration and other education stakeholders will provide more bursary information to female students to enable them enroll in technical training institutes.