Teaching Staff Recruitment in Technical Vocational and Educational Training Centres in Kenya.

Abstract

Human resource management is a significant organizational component as it provides for viewpoints, ideals and characteristics of an organization’s life, and when appropriately managed, these human characteristics can be considerably advantageous to an organization. As such, effective recruitment becomes a crucial component underpinning human resource management’s foundational operations, which encompass acquisition, development and rewarding employees. This study sought to establish the factors affecting staff recruitment in Vocational Training Centres within Kiambu County in Kenya, with human resource planning and job analysis being the variables under investigation. The theories anchoring this study are; institutional theory and the resource-based view theory. Descriptive survey approach was used and a census was carried out involving the top management and heads of departments of the institutions. Data was collected using standardized questionnaires used and thereafter analysis was conducted both quantitatively and qualitatively. Descriptive and inferential analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences. Results showed that human resource planning was crucial in achieving the laid-out organizational goals. Job analysis was found to communicate the purpose, level of responsibility and scope of the job to potential applicants. Elaborate plans were put in place to nurture and develop employees to enhance their knowledge and skills through reskilling courses, workshops and seminars. With many of them transitioning from craftwork to the classroom, along with the upscaling of credentials to encompass Competence-Based Education, the centres, along with the goodwill of TVETA has created an enabling environment for employees to advance in knowledge and diversify their skillset. The calculated pvalue ANOVA score was 0.000 for human resource planning and job analysis. With the critical scores being less than 0.005, it was concluded that the two variables were significant in determining recruitment decisions by vocational training centres.