Women’s participation in vocational education at buhangija and mwanva folk development colleges in shinyanga region, Tanzania

The study investigated the factors influencing women's participation in Vocational Education in Folk Development Colleges in Tanzania. Experience indicated that for a long time women had been under-represented in vocational education and training particularly in FDCs. The study objectives were three namely to find out enrolment trend of women in Folk Development Colleges, to assess the relevance of programmes offered to the needs and interest of the women, and to assess performance of the women in vocational education and training programmes. Qualitative research approach was used. A total of sixty one respondents were involved in the study and documentary review, interview, observation and focus group discussion were opted as methods of collecting data. CIPP Model was adopted to guide the study. The model comprised the context, input, process and output variables. The study revealed that the FDCs programmes had a positive impact on literacy and socio-economic development of the rural community. It was also found that the women were under-represented in FDCs; that various factors influenced their participation and performance among which, poverty, negative attitude of the community towards vocational education and poor teaching environment features most. Other findings were that skills acquired prepared learners for employment in urban areas while the communities surrounding the FDCs have inadequate information about the existence or advantages of the FDCs. It was recommended that FDCs should conduct needs assessment in order to offer skills which were relevant to the local community so that its graduates benefit from rural employment opportunities. It was also recommended that a study needs to be done to track the whereabouts of the women graduates and find out their employment status in the formal and informal sector.