Abstract:
Kenya's Vision 2030 blueprint envisages a country that has achieved middle income status
supported by five key sectors of the economy namely; Agriculture, ICT, Manufacturing/Industry,
Education and Finance (Nelly, 2007). This will improve provision of education to students in
technical institutions and hence achieve an industrialized nation by 2030. The purpose this study
is to investigate the factors influencing students’ achievement in technical education programmes
in Kenya: A case study of Kirinyaga University, Kirinyaga County, Kenya. The study will be
guided by the following objectives; to establish the effect of availability of teaching personnel on
students’ achievement, determine the influence of learning facilities and resources on students’
achievement, assess the influence of teaching Pedagogy on students’ achievement and identify
how finances influence students’ achievement. Theoretical framework was derived from the
human capital theory and descriptive case design was employed. Target population was 189 and
a sample of 123 (15 teaching staff, 1 examination officer and 107 students), stratified sampling
and simple random sampling were used to select the respondents. Questionnaires were used to
collect data. Ten respondents who never participated in the study were used for pretest. Data
analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22. Descriptive
statistics was computed and data was presented using tables. Study findings revealed that
majority teaching staff hold Bachelors degree, demonstration is an effective training method, and
that majority of students relied on parents for their fees and upkeep. The findings will be useful
to future scholars as it enhance the existing body of knowledge, hence improve provision of
education in technical institutions for achievement of Vision 2030. Technical institutions should
also have well educated and experienced teaching personnel, suitable and adequate classroom
physical facilities, use a variety of Pedagogy to improve students’ achievement.
