INFLUENCE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP TRAINING PROGRAMMES ON THE PERFORMANCE OF YOUTH OWNED ENTERPRISES IN THE CASE OF LAIKIPIA EAST SUB COUNTY, LAIKIPIA COUNTY

Abstract

Youth enterprises play an important role in facilitating socio-economic development through job creation. Entrepreneurship training programs aim at equipping the youth with valuable skills such as critical thinking, decision making, leadership, team work and innovation which enhance better performance in entrepreneurial activities. Although various organizations have developed and implemented such training programmes, there is evidence that many of these enterprises collapse after a short period of time. This necessitated the need to investigate the influence of entrepreneurship training programmes on the performance of youth owned enterprises in Laikipia East Sub County. The objectives of the study were to: establish types of entrepreneurship training and their influence, determine the influence of institutional resource capacity and determine how stakeholders’ participation in training programmes development influenced performance of youth enterprises in Laikipia East Sub County. Descriptive survey design was used. The study population was 1450 respondents. The accessible population was youth engaged in entrepreneurship and officials from training institutions. A sample size of 350 respondents was used according to the table of sample size estimation by Isaac & Michael. Simple random was used in identifying trained youth while purposive sampling technique was applied on training providers. Data was collected using questionnaires, Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) and Focus Group Discussions (FGDs). Quantitative data was analyzed using chi square test to determine independence between the variables with the help of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0. Qualitative data was analyzed using themes and narratives. Results were presented in graphs and tables. Results established that there were significant relationships between entrepreneurship training types and performance of youth enterprises (p-value 0.0001), institutional resource capacity of training providers and performance of youth enterprises (p-value 0.0024) and stakeholders participation in development of training programmes and performance of youth enterprises (p-value 0.0000). In conclusion, the study has shown that training programs have a lasting positive impact on youth enterprises, and specifically when having the input of stakeholders in coming up with these programmes. As long as these enterprises continue to absorb huge number of unemployed youth, sustaining their effectiveness is unavoidable. As recommendations therefore, more training programs should be availed as various approaches are used to disseminate information about the intended training, use of technology and availing adequate training materials and qualified personnel should be adopted to ensure intended results of the training programmes are achieved. Increased engagement and consultation with stakeholders should be up scaled.