Technical, Vocational, Education and Training (TVET) focuses on providing lifelong skills that meet the needs of the work place, industry and self-employment. The importance of TVET is in the global agenda for development and refocusing education and training in the 21st Century. Purposely, this study sought to investigate individual and socioeconomic determinants of trainees’ enrolment and participation in public TVETs in Nakuru County, Kenya.  The objective of the study was to establish how socioeconomic status influenced trainees’ enrolment and participation in public TVETs in Nakuru County, Kenya and the research hypothesis that was tested stated that there is no significant relationship between socioeconomic status and trainees’ enrolment and participation in public TVETs in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study employed descriptive survey research design with a sample size 12 TVETs, 30 trainers and 331 trainees drawn from the target population of 24 public TVETs, 150 trainers and 2385 trainees from entire Nakuru County. Data collection instruments were interview guide, questionnaires and document analysis guides. Data was analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Descriptive statistics which included frequencies percentages, means and standard deviations were generated and used in discussing the research findings. Correlation analysis and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 95% confidence interval of the difference (ά=0.05) was also done. The findings showed that: there was a significant relationship between socioeconomic status and trainees’ enrolment; there was a statistically significant mean difference between socioeconomic status and trainees’ enrolment in public TVETs; there was statistically significant mean difference between income of parents, level of education of parents and occupation of parents and trainees’ enrolment in TVETs. The findings of the correlation between socioeconomic status of trainees and enrolment in TVETs showed that, P value = .002< P= 0.05, HO2 was rejected and the conclusion was that there was a significant relationship between socioeconomic status of trainees and enrolment of trainees. The analysis led to the conclusion that, socioeconomic status determined enrolment in TVETs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the individual and institutional determinants of trainee enrolment in public, technical vocational, education and training (TVET) institutions in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study was informed by the large number of secondary school graduates idling in the community and efforts of government of Kenya to raise enrolment in TVETs for skill training to actualise vision 2030. The study sought to investigate whether trainees’ attitude had influence on enrolment in public TVETs in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study was guided by the Social Learning Theory of Career Decision Making (SLTCDM) by John D. Krumboltz (1976). The theory focuses on developing career readiness through implementation of learning theory in school-to-work programs. This study employed descriptive survey research design. The sample size consisted of 12 TVETs, 30 trainers and 331 trainees drawn from the target population of 24 public TVETs, 150 trainers and 2385 trainees from entire Nakuru County. Data was collected by use of interview schedule for the TVET principals, questionnaires for trainers and trainees and document analysis. Data were processed and analysed qualitatively and quantitatively. Descriptive statistics which included frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations were generated and used in presenting research findings. Statistical tests were done using correlation coefficient and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 95% confidence interval of the difference (ά=0.05) to be sure true mean is used. The findings of the correlation between trainees’ attitudes and enrolment in TVETs showed that, P value was 0.3883 > P=0.05, therefore HO4 was accepted and a conclusion made that there was no significant relationship between trainees’ attitudes and enrolment of trainees. Based on the findings, the study concluded that, trainees’ attitudes do not negatively influence enrolment in TVETs since the trainees willingly chose to enroll in TVETs regardless of the negative publicity towards TVETs. The researcher recommended that, these trainees who have experienced the benefits of enrolling in TVET, to be good ambassadors in their communities so as to change the image of TVETs’ negative publicity so that more prospective trainees enroll which could result to increased enrolment.