STAKEHOLDER ATTITUDES TOWARDS TOURISM TRAINING IN MIDDLE LEVEL COLLEGES IN KENYA

Abstract

ABSTRACT Training is critical to human resource development and in the promotion and development of the tourism industry. In Kenya, Middle Level Colleges (MLCs) have been instrumental in manpower training for the tourism sector and national development. Despite this, no comprehensive study has been undertaken to assess the performance of MLC trainees in tourism training under the changing global tourism environment to realize Kenya’s Vision 2030. As such, this study assessed attitudes of key tourism stakeholders towards tourism training in MLCs and their contributions to human capital for the tourism industry in Kenya. Objectives of the study were to assess the types of programmes and management of tourism training offered by MLCs, the attitudes of trainees and trainers towards tourism training in MLCs. The study utilized the descriptive research design and targeted college administrators, tourism trainees and trainers. Twenty (20) MLCs were randomly sampled for this study from Nairobi County. College administrators from 16 MLCs were interviewed to get details on student enrolment in each college, number of staff, and infrastructure and equipment. A sample of 326 trainees out of 4,110 in public and 1,429 from private MLCs were selected using Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) for the administration of questionnaires. These were composed of 172 trainees from public and 154 from private MLCs. 105 trainers comprising of 45 from public MLCs and 60 from private MLCs were purposively selected. These gave an overall sample of 447 interviewed who participated in the study. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews, and analyzed using descriptive statistics to generate means, percentages and frequency, while inferential statistics including ANOVA and Chi-square test were used to do further analysis on selected variables. Findings revealed that there were significant differences in the types of programmes and management of tourism trainings offered by MLCs based on college administrators’ attitudes (χ2=8.878, df=15, p<0.05). Diploma courses were rated as excellent for public MLCs and average and good for private MLCs and foreign diploma programmes respectively. Certificate courses in public MLCs were rated as good, while those in private MLCs and foreign certificates were rated as poor and average respectively. Trainees perceived tourism training in public MLCs as above average, while facilities in private MLCs were ranked higher than those in public MLCs. These facilities are used to market respective colleges. Trainers in both public and private MLCs cited tourism training in Kenya as adequate, and satisfactorily utilized radios and televisions as promotional strategies while lack of practical skills within the tourism sector hindered teaching in MLCs. Public MLC trainers complete their syllabi on time and the entry behavior for trainees to programmes is crucial to trainers in these institutions as compared to private MLCs. Middle level colleges are a critical source of middle level technical human capital in the tourism industry and different types of colleges are critical for healthy competition that leads to better trained graduates. It is recommended that the government coordinates tourism trainings in all MLCs in Kenya through regular training of trainers teaching in MLCs, and review of tourism programmes and curriculums to ensure production of quality graduates who are critical for tourism promotion and development. This can be realized through policy reviews, formulation and regulation of tourism training.