Vocational education and community integration of young adults with mental retardation in Kiamu county , Kenya
Abstract
T
he
purpose
of
this
study
was
to
investigate
how
vocational
education
and
transitional
services
offered
in
vocational
institutions
helped
young
adults
with
ment
a
l
retardation
attain
full
community
integra
j
ion,
The
study
objectives
included
to;
in
v
estigate
the
extent
to
which
vocational
education
equips
young
adults
with
mental
retardation
with
skills
of
community
adjustment
and
identify
different
avenues
through
which
they
were
integrated
in
the
community.
The
study
employed
both
quantitative
and
qualitative
approaches
.
Quantitative
analysis
W
:I
S
applied
for
the
purpose
of
clarification,
strengthening
,
explaining
and
supporting
qualitative
information
.
The
research
design
was
a
descriptive
case
study
.
The
target
population
comprised
all
young
adults
with
mental
retardation
in
Kiambu
County
.
Th
e
sampl
e
of
the
stud
y
included
10
young
adults
with
mental
retardation
.
Other
respondents
were
a
headteacher/
employer
,
2
vocational
teachers
and
9
parents.
Data
collection
was
done
by
use
of
interview
guides,
note
t
a
king
,
audio
recording
and
observation
checklist
.
The
actual
data
collection
took
30
days
.
Codes
were
created
according
to
the
themes
of
the
study
for
the
data
collected
from
interviews
and
for
the
observation
text
.
Qualitative
data
analysis
was
carried
out
using
the
Atlas.
ti
computer
software
.
Quantitative
data
analyses
were
manually
carried
out
through
tallying
the
frequency
of
segmented
responses.
The
study
established
that
community
participation
of
young
adults
with
mental
retardation
is
very
minimal.
Further,
the
findings
revealed
that
in
as
much
as
young
adults
with
mental
retardation
were
offered
vocational
skills
in
the
special
schools,
what
they
were
engaged
in
thereafter
was
not
relevant
to
the
skills
they
had
trained
in
.
This
led
to
some
of
them
disliking
the
kind
of
jobs
they
had,
which
for
them
are
avenues
of
community
integration.