Entrepreneurship development in Kenyan technical education: Exploring the 'state of the art'

This study explores the perceptions of students, teachers and policy makers towards entrepreneurship education. It attempts, by using the views of these groups of people, to profile entrepreneurship education as provide in Kenya's vocational and technical education. It examines issues related to conception of entrepreneurship education, the resources available and the pedagogical practices adopted in the teaching of entrepreneurship education.;A combination of qualitative research methods, including interviews and document analysis was undertaken to provide the data for this study. Transcripts of the interviews and documents were analyzed for salient finds and resonating themes.;Among the major findings emerging from this study is the apparent conceptualization of entrepreneurship education within the small enterprise sector orientation. Entrepreneurship education is intricately associated with the preparation of individuals for self-employment through independent business ownership. This conceptualization leaves little room for connecting entrepreneurship with the development of enterprising individuals or individuals who can pursue entrepreneurship outside the self-employment realm. The entrepreneurship education curriculum was perceived as demanding major revisions to adequately serve the needs of the students by equipping them with entrepreneurial knowledge, skills and attitudes that are congruent with the reality of the current business environment. Entrepreneurship education was perceived as experiential-oriented demanding the student to take an active role in the teaching/learning process. However various factors, including teachers personal initiative and ability, time allotment, resources, student learning styles, and institutional environment were viewed as impediments to the practice of the experiential-oriented pedagogical strategies. Teachers with adequate competence as reflected by the type of training accorded to them for the purposes of teaching entrepreneurship education were scarce.;The study concludes that while much has been done to infuse entrepreneurship education into the vocational and technical education system, there is a lot of room for improvement. An attempt should be made to incorporate a conceptualization of entrepreneurship that embodies both self-employment and wage employment to prevent entrepreneurship being perceived as a last resort. The curriculum needs a complete overhaul to correct inadequacies such as shallowness and obsoleteness of the curriculum content. The curriculum should also be made responsive to the needs of the students in terms of entry knowledge. Teachers should be encouraged and trained to use the right pedagogical strategies to avoid turning entrepreneurship into another academic core course. Most of all, a system should be provided to connect entrepreneurship education to life after graduation by devising systems that assist graduates to implement viable business ideas.