- The paper aimed at establishing challenges
faced by and opportunities available for females
pursuing engineering programs in public tertiary
colleges in the Nairobi area. The study was conducted at
eleven middle-level public colleges in the Nairobi area
offering engineering programs. Descriptive research
design was used to describe the variables associated with
women's opportunities and challenges in engineering
courses. Census method was used for the target
population of 317 female students. Validity and
reliability of the questionnaire was tested through a pilot
study. Questionnaires were randomly distributed
amongst the target population. Data obtained were
subjected to the SPSS program for descriptive statistics
and presented in form of tables. The findings of the
study were that the majority of the female students
(>80%) confirmed that engineering as a course posed a
challenge to them, with handling heavy machines being
their main challenge. On the other hand, the majority of
the respondents (>60%) confirmed that they had not
received any support from the government, relevant
bodies, or even international organizations.
It was concluded that female students pursuing
engineering programs in public tertiary colleges in the
Nairobi area are faced with more challenges and
opportunities are scarce.
It was recommended that these institutions should
provide an enabling environment that will open up more
academic and career opportunities for women intending
to pursue engineering at higher levels or those who wish
to work in engineering areas in industries or
organizations.
Keywords :
Opportunities, Challenges, Engineering, female and Public-Colleges