Factors Determining Tertiary Tourism Education Quality in Kenya: The Perspectives of Tourism Graduate Employees and Tourism Employers

Abstract

Tourism industry is one of the contributors to the growth of the Kenyan economy. Given its economic importance, both the government and the private sectors have invested heavily in the training and human capacity building for the tourism industry. Tourism education is considered critical for effective work performance in the tourism industry as it equips the employees with relevant knowledge, skills and competencies. As search, there is a need for the kind of tourism education given to learners to reflect both the needs of the learners and of the employers in the job market. In view of this, its important to identify factors that determine tertiary tourism education quality from the perspectives of the tourism graduate employees and tourism employers. A cross sectional survey research design was employed to collect data from 385 tertiary tourism graduate employees and 385 tourism employers in Kenya using multi-stage sampling. Data was collected using self-administered questionnaires. Factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were used identify the factors. A three-factor solution namely teaching and learning process, learning resources and curriculum structure emerged. These factors accounted for 75.95% of the total variance explained. Four items significantly predicted the first two factors in each case (p < 0.01) with R² = .88 and R² = .75 respectively. The last factor was significantly predicted by five items (p < 0.05) with R² = .91. The study provides insights to tertiary tourism education program developers and the training institutions on the key areas they should focus on in ensuring tertiary tourism education quality.