How Effective is Vocational Education and Training for Rehabilitation in Kenyan Prisons? A Study Protocol

Rehabilitation and reformation of offenders is one of the core functions of the Kenya Prisons Service. Kenya Prisons service has various modules of training that make the staff more effective and professional in carrying out their mandate of securing prisoners for the purpose of rehabilitation and reintegration back into society. Learning strategies can open up opportunities for increase in participation in formal and vocational training, broaden prisoner’s academic horizons and provide a second chance to learn the skills and competences needed in order to reintegrate in society and hence reduce recidivism. Recidivism is still evidenced in Kenya and therefore there is need to keenly investigate and interrogate specifically the Vocational Education and training programmes offered and find out whether they really meet the needs and expectations in assisting integration of Ex-prisoners back to society. The purpose of this research study is to determine the effectiveness of the methodologies employed in delivery of VET to aid in integrating Ex-prisoners to the society. The objectives of the study are to establish; the learning strategies employed, the nature and types of VET programmes being delivered in Kenya Prison, the adequacy and appropriateness of resources used in Prison training programme delivery, the perceptions on Vocational Education Training and other training fields in Kenya Prisons, and challenges of VET trained Ex-prisoners in the field of work.The study is based on the assumption that the prison authorities would spare time for the inmates to be interviewed and fill questionnaires fearlessly, and that the in-charge will be ready to respond to questionnaires without fear or intimidation from prison authorities. Target population will be of 1700 prison trainees, 25 prison trainers and 10 prison administrators. The study population will be a total of 369 prison trainees, 25 prison trainers, 10 administrators and 50 ex-convicts. Further the Prison authorities have sufficient data of the trained reconvicts already integrated in the society. Purposive sampling will be employed to reach out to the aforementioned key informants. Systematic random sampling will be used to identify the trainees to be interviewed. Reliability of the research instrument will be done by carrying out a pilot study and the items found to be inconsistent with objectives of the study will be left out so as to increase reliability. During the pilot study, the split half Pearson’s product moment correlation (r) formulae will be used to establish the extent to which items were