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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
While the importance of the rôle of formally qualified high- and middle-level technical personnel in the development process in Africa has been repeatedly underlined since the early 1950s, relatively little empirical research has focused on the historical evolution and present constitution of the occupations which embody these skills. As a contribution to such an analysis, this case-study examines the determinants of the institutional provision of Kenyans with engineering technician qualifications, and their subsequent employment and utilisation. In other words, we are concerned with the relationship between the supply of, and demand for, one group of skilled individuals. Although formulating the problem in this way may, at first sight, appear to be narrowly economistic, this framework provides a methodologically useful starting point for a multi-disciplinary analysis.
page 273 note 1 This article is based on research undertaken in Kenya during 1980–1 on the structure of labour markets in engineering, with the assistance of William Senga, Director, Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, B. Odour-Otieno, Ministry of Labour, and A. D'Souza, Ministry of Higher Education.
page 274 note 1 U.N.C.T.A.D., Technology Planning in Developing Countries (Manila, 1979), p. 47.Google Scholar
page 274 note 2 Some technician training was also undertaken at the Mombasa Technical Institute, originally established as the Muslim Institute of Education, and later upgraded to become the Mombasa Polytechnic in 1974.
page 275 note 1 East African Institute of Engineering, Annual Address of the President, 1962, Nairobi.
page 275 note 2 Ibid.
page 275 note 3 Republic of Kenya, Development Plan, 1966–1970 (Nairobi, 1966), p. 44.Google Scholar
page 276 note 1 Wellens, John, The Training Revolution (London, 1963), p. 31.Google Scholar
page 276 note 2 The term ‘industrialising society’ was explicitly used by the International Labour Organisation to describe a large number of developing countries during the early 1960s.
page 276 note 3 British Government, Technical Education (London, 1963), Cmnd. 9703.Google Scholar
page 276 note 4 British Government, Better Opprtunities in Technical Education (London, 1961), Cmnd. 1254, p. 11.Google Scholar
page 276 note 5 British Government, A Plan for Polytechnics and Other Colleges (London, 1966), Cmnd. 3006, p. 3.Google Scholar
page 277 note 1 British Government, Report of the Committee on Technician Courses and Examinations (London, 1969), p. 66.Google Scholar
page 277 note 2 Ibid. p. 6.
page 278 note 1 ‘Standard Test For Overseas’, in East African Standard (Nairobi), 1 07 1958.Google Scholar
page 278 note 2 Ministry of Education, Republic of Kenya, ‘Kenya Polytechnic: terminal report of the UNDP/UNESCO project’, Nairobi, 1972, p. 10.
page 278 note 3 Benson, B. N., ‘Technical Education in Developing Countries’, Conference on Engineering Education in East Africa, Nairobi, 1966, p. 2.Google Scholar
page 279 note 1 Letter from the Principal of the Kenya Polytechnic Archives, A3/41, Vol. 1 For example, only 24·6 per cent of the technician engineers who sat the Ordinary Certificate examination in 1962 passed.
page 279 note 2 Government of Kenya, Interim Report No. 2 on the Localisation and Training of the Kenyan Civil Service (Nairobi, 1961), p. 23.Google Scholar
page 279 note 3 Report of the Committee on Technician Courses, p. 48.
page 279 note 4 Ibid. p. 44.
page 280 note 1 Unesco/U.N.E.C.A., Conference of African States on the Development of Education in Africa. Final Report (Addis Ababa, 1961);Google ScholarUnesco, , The Development of Higher Education in Africa. Report of a Conference held in Tananarive, 3–12 September 1962 (Paris, 1962).Google Scholar
page 280 note 2 Commonwealth Education Liason Committee, Report of an Expert Conference on the Training of Technicians (London, 1966);Google ScholarUnesco, , Regional Seminar on the Training of Higher and Middle Level Technician Manpower Within the Framework of National Education Systems (Paris, 1968);Google ScholarUnesco, , Report on the Conference on Education and Scientific and Technical Training in Relation to Development in Africa (Paris, 1970).Google Scholar
page 280 note 3 East African Institute of Engineers, ‘Memorandum on Technician Training’, Nairobi, May 1964.
page 280 note 4 Directorate of Personnel Management, Republic of Kenya, ‘A Case Study of Manpower Requirements, Availability, and Utilization in the Kenya Civil Service’, Nairobi, 1980.
page 281 note 1 Harbison, Frederick H., ‘The Strategy of Human Resource Development in Modernizing Economies’, in Wykstra, R. A. (ed.), Education and the Economics of Human Capital (New York, 1970), p. 223.Google Scholar
page 281 note 2 Zymelman, M., ‘Labour Education and Development’ in Adams, D. (ed.), Education in National Development (London, 1971).Google Scholar
page 281 note 3 Report of the Committee on Technician Courses, p. 8.
page 282 note 1 European and United States Engineering Congress, ‘Definitions of the Professional Engineer and Engineering Technician’.
page 282 note 2 This statement occurs frequently in the proceedings of the East African Institute of Education and the Engineering Panels of the Institute of Education.
page 282 note 3 Kenya Institute of Education, ‘Minutes of Mechanical Engineering Technician Part III Sub-Committee, 29 September 1977’.
page 284 note 2 It would have been preferable to use sponsorship data for all individuals undertaking engineering technician courses during the complete academic years, but unfortunately this information did not exist in any readily extractable form from the records of the Kenya Polytechnic.
page 284 note 3 Attendance records for building/construction engineering technicians were too incomplete to be able to undertake a sample tracer survey among this group.
page 285 note 2 Over 95 per cent of parastatal sponsors were ‘service’ organisations, most notably electricity, posts and telecommunications, railways, television and radio, and ports.
page 286 note 2 Ibid.
page 287 note 1 Interview with P. A. Ayoro, Technical Services Manager, Kenya Industrial Estates, 12 September 1980.
page 290 note 1 Among the respondents in the tracer survey at the Kenya Polytechnic, 8.4% stated that they belonged to ‘management associations’, 44% were members of mainly British ‘professional associations’, 10.2% to a trades union, and 37.2% did not belong to any organisation.
page 290 note 2 World Bank, Report on Technical Education in Kenya (Washington, D.C., 1980);Google Scholar also Technical Education Training Overseas Council, ‘Report on the Proposal to Establish a Third Polytechnic in Kenya’, London, 1980.Google Scholar