Determinants of preference for vocational education and training in Uganda: a case study of YMCA Comprehensive Institute Kampala Branch

Abstract

The topic of the study was determinants of preference for vocational education and training by school going youth in Uganda. The case study was at YMCA Comprehensive Institute, Kampala Branch. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Data was edited, codes and entered in Stata for analysis. A sample of 100 respondents was selected by Simple Random Sampling. Majority of the respondents were female with 57% and males were 47% and many of them still were in the age group of 21-25 with a measure of 65%. The Non Parametric Chi-square test was used to test how various factors influence preference for vocational education and training at 5% level of significance. The results showed that the p-value for parent's financial situation was 0.049, the P-value for previous academic performance in UNEB was 0.454; this was the Fishers exact test. The nature of the vocational course directly affected the choice for vocational education with a p value of 0.045; the length of the vocational course had a p-value of 0.055 which showed no significant relationship to the preference for vocational education. Finally the p-value for the comprehensive knowledge about unemployment and job opportunities was 0.844 which had the highest p-value in all the tactics and this showed no significant relationship to the preference for vocational education. From the findings of the study, the government should intervene as far as increasing the number of vocational institutions and have some students funded for since the numbers are evidently increasing. This will help bridge the gap of unemployment in the country most especially among the students who have finalized their studies. More equipment should be installed so as to enhance more practicability of the courses since it is one of the factors that influence students to make choice to join the vocational syllabus. The government should also harmonize the existence of both the UNEB standard and the vocational syllabus so as to breed more esteem between students from both ends