Abstract:
Training is critical to human resource development and in the promotion and development of the
tourism industry. In Kenya, Middle Level Colleges (MLCs) have been instrumental in manpower
training for the tourism sector and national development. Despite this, no comprehensive study
has been undertaken to assess the performance of MLC trainees in tourism training under the
changing global tourism environment to realize Kenya’s Vision 2030. As such, this study
assessed attitudes of key tourism stakeholders towards tourism training in MLCs and their
contributions to human capital for the tourism industry in Kenya. Objectives of the study were to
assess the types of programmes and management of tourism training offered by MLCs, the
attitudes of trainees and trainers towards tourism training in MLCs. The study utilized the
descriptive research design and targeted college administrators, tourism trainees and trainers.
Twenty (20) MLCs were randomly sampled for this study from Nairobi County. College
administrators from 16 MLCs were interviewed to get details on student enrolment in each
college, number of staff, and infrastructure and equipment. A sample of 326 trainees out of 4,110
in public and 1,429 from private MLCs were selected using Krejcie and Morgan Table (1970) for
the administration of questionnaires. These were composed of 172 trainees from public and 154
from private MLCs. 105 trainers comprising of 45 from public MLCs and 60 from private MLCs
were purposively selected. These gave an overall sample of 447 interviewed who participated in
the study. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews, and analyzed using descriptive
statistics to generate means, percentages and frequency, while inferential statistics including
ANOVA and Chi-square test were used to do further analysis on selected variables. Findings
revealed that there were significant differences in the types of programmes and management of
tourism trainings offered by MLCs based on college administrators’ attitudes (χ2=8.878, df=15,
p<0.05). Diploma courses were rated as excellent for public MLCs and average and good for
private MLCs and foreign diploma programmes respectively. Certificate courses in public MLCs
were rated as good, while those in private MLCs and foreign certificates were rated as poor and
average respectively. Trainees perceived tourism training in public MLCs as above average,
while facilities in private MLCs were ranked higher than those in public MLCs. These facilities
are used to market respective colleges. Trainers in both public and private MLCs cited tourism
training in Kenya as adequate, and satisfactorily utilized radios and televisions as promotional
strategies while lack of practical skills within the tourism sector hindered teaching in MLCs.
Public MLC trainers complete their syllabi on time and the entry behavior for trainees to
programmes is crucial to trainers in these institutions as compared to private MLCs. Middle level
colleges are a critical source of middle level technical human capital in the tourism industry and
different types of colleges are critical for healthy competition that leads to better trained
graduates. It is recommended that the government coordinates tourism trainings in all MLCs in
Kenya through regular training of trainers teaching in MLCs, and review of tourism programmes
and curriculums to ensure production of quality graduates who are critical for tourism promotion
and development. This can be realized through policy reviews, formulation and regulation of
tourism training.