Recruits’ and officers’ perception of the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme in the paramilitary establishment: A case study of the National Youth Service Training College, Gilgil

Abstract

Since 1970s, there has been a tremendous growth of counselling services in Kenya. The National Youth Service (NYS) is a department in the Office of the Vice President and Ministry of Youth Affairs. The Basic Paramilitary Training Programme exposes recruits to psychosocial problems hence need for counselling services. Recruits‟, servicemen/women‟s and officers‟ perception of the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme determines it‟s implementation and success in NYS. If they have a positive perception on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme, they would play a significant role in ensuring that recruits benefit from the services. The purpose of this study was to determine the recruits‟ and officers‟ perception on the effectiveness of guidance and counselling programme in the paramilitary establishment. This was a case study of National Youth Service, Gilgil Training College. The study used the ex post facto research design. The target population was all NYS officers, servicemen and women and recruits. The college had a population of 242 Paramilitary training officers, 10 vocational school principals, 10 officer counsellors, 856 servicemen and women and 2473 recruits. A sample of 24 paramilitary training officers, 2 vocational school principals, 2 officer counsellors, 86 service men and women, and 252 recruits were selected through stratified and simple random sampling procedures. The required data were collected through questionnaires. The questionnaires were administered to the respondents after being pilot tested for validity and reliability. Pilot study was done at the NYS Naivasha field unit. The following reliability indices were obtained; 0.70 for Servicemen/Women Questionnaire, 0.71 for Vocational School Principals‟ Questionnaire, 0.73 for Officer Counsellors‟ Questionnaire, 0.83 for Paramilitary Officers‟ Questionnaire and 0.90 for Recruits‟ questionnaire. The questionnaires were also subjected to scrutiny by the researcher and supervisors to establish their validity. Descriptive statistics included percentages, means and frequencies which were used to analyse the data on recruits‟ and officers‟ perception of the guidance and counselling programme. Inferential statistics included t-test and Pearson coefficient test used to test the hypotheses of the study. The posited hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance. The computer based Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) windows version 11.5 was used to analyse the data collected. The findings of the study revealed that the guidance and counselling programme was perceived positively by all NYS stakeholders. The study thus recommended that there was need to offer more appropriate training to officer counsellors and provide the necessary adequate resources for effective service delivery.