Training in agriculture as predictor of agripreneurial intentions of agricultural students in Kenyan TVET Institutions

Agricultural education and training have been found to enhance agripreneurial intentions. Favorable agripreneurial intentions, in turn, indicate level of readiness(intention) to engage in agripreneurship. Consequently, agrarian economies, Kenya included, are using agricultural education and training to prepare youth for agripreneurship. However, there are scanty empirical findings on how agricultural education and training at TVET level is preparing Kenyan youth in readiness for agripreneurship. The purpose of this study, thus, was to examine the influence of agricultural education and training at TVET level on students’ agripreneurial intentions. The study was guided by the Theory of Planned Behaviour and utilized a correlational research design. Simple and stratified sampling procedures gave 356 respondents from an accessible population of 3190 final year agricultural students. Data was collected using closed-ended and open-ended questionnaires. Piloting and use of inter-item consistency technique yielded a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of .928 and .844 for agripreneurial intentions and training in agriculture respectively. The study hypothesis was tested using simple linear regression analysis at .05 level of significance. Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 28 aided data analysis. Qualitative data was analyzed thematically. Findings revealed that the students had high and favorable agripreneurial intentions (M=80.27%) with agricultural education and training predicting agripreneurial intentions (r=.423, R2=.179, F (1,314) =66.981, p=.000) with 17.9% variance. The study concluded that agricultural education and training at TVET level contributes to agripreneurial intentions formation of final year students studying agricultural courses. It is recommended that educators and policy makers and curriculum planners in TVET institutions promote and strengthen agricultural education and training to enhance students’ agripreneurial intentions.