Community ‌Stakeholder ‌Perceptions ‌of Market-Aligned Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET): Implications for Skills Development and Labour Market Alignment in Mombasa County, Kenya

Across policy and practice, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is increasingly treated as a practical route for tackling youth unemployment, narrowing skills gaps, and advancing sustainable socio-economic progress. Yet, even with wide-ranging reforms in Kenya’s TVET landscape, empirical work that captures how community stakeholders judge the relevance and responsiveness of market-aligned programmes remains limited. This study investigated how community stakeholders perceive market-aligned TVET programmes delivered by the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) in Mombasa County, Kenya. Attention centred on perceived programme quality, the technical and digital skills considered most urgent, constraints affecting participation, openings for stronger community and industry collaboration, and variations in perceptions across stakeholder categories and sub-counties. A quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive survey design guided the study. Data came from 240 community stakeholders, selected through a two-stage stratified proportional sampling strategy spanning Mombasa County’s six sub-counties. A structured questionnaire supported primary data collection. Analysis drew on descriptive statistics, Cronbach’s alpha to examine internal consistency, composite index development, chi-square procedures, one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Kruskal-Wallis tests, cross-tabulations, and Cramér’s V to estimate effect sizes. Community respondents largely expressed favourable views toward TVET. In aggregate, 83.3% reported positive perceptions of TUM-TVET, and 86.7% rated TVET as important for youth employment and regional economic development. The composite TVET Quality Index averaged 3.50 (Cronbach’s α = 0.79), a pattern consistent with generally satisfactory perceived quality. Priority technical areas included electrical installation, hospitality, plumbing, welding and fabrication, ICT support, automotive maintenance, and maritime services. On the digital side, respondents pointed to digital literacy, programming, cybersecurity, and digital marketing as increasingly necessary competencies. Key constraints to participation were financial pressure, transport expenses, limited awareness, and weak career guidance. Stakeholders advocated for broader scholarship coverage, transport support, flexible learning routes, internships, apprenticeships, and closer institutional collaboration with industry. Inferential results showed statistically significant differences among sub-counties (p < 0.001), signalling that TVET planning benefits from locally sensitive approaches. Overall, the study argues that community perspectives serve as a useful source of labour market intelligence for strengthening market-aligned TVET. When community participation is built into curriculum review, institutional planning, and policy processes, programme relevance and graduate employability can improve while institutional responsiveness is strengthened. Empirically, the results add to the literature on community-responsive vocational education and provide evidence-based guidance for TUM, county governments, TVETA, employers, HELB, KUCCPS, and development partners working to strengthen demand-driven TVET systems in Kenya.