Technology Innovation and Transfer in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Institutions: Scalability and Sustainability of the Student's Projects.

Abstract

Technology Innovation and Transfer (TIT)is an engine for the socio-economic growth of any country including Tanzania. TVET has emerged as one of the effective resource growth strategies for the scalability and sustainability of such TIT. One of the ways used by TVET institutions to promote TIT is final year students’ projects. However, very little is known about the scalability and sustainability of TIT in the TVET institutions in Tanzania, particularly from the graduates. This paper specifically evaluated the performance of TVET institutions in the technology transfer process (TTP) when considering the finalyear students’ projects in TVET. Being that the case, this study provides insights into the scalability and sustainability of students' research projects in TVET institutions in Tanzania. The study was approached quantitatively in which data were collected using a questionnaire from 387 TVET graduates who were obtained using multi-stage sampling techniques (simple random, stratified, and convenience). The collected data were analyzed using Descriptive Statistics. The findings reveal that the TTP aspects of invention, invention disclosure, and assessment were well performed. On the other hand, aspects such as protection, marketing, licensing, and financial returns were poorly performed in TVET institutions. Conclusively, there is good performance of scalability and sustainability of the final year students’ projects in TVET in invention, invention disclosure, and assessment while poor performance in protection, marketing, licensing, and financial returns. This study calls for excellent performance in all aspects of TTP as far as final-year students’ projects are concerned. This will in turn ensure the strong scalability and sustainability of the technology innovation and transfer in TVET.