Prof. Msambichaka, Joseph. J.Dr. Minga, Lusajo M.2025-08-192025-08-192008-01https://repository.must.ac.tz/handle/123456789/463This Paper Article was Published by ResearchGateMbeya Institute of Science and Technology is one of four Government Technical Institutions in Tanzania. Education and Training in these Technical Institutions are based on Science and Engineering fields. The basic catchments areas are the students who have completed Ordinary Secondary Schools Education with good passes in science subjects. More male students are opting to study science subjects in Ordinary Secondary Schools than female students. This attributes to more male students to enroll in Technical Institutions than female students due to the limited number of female students from the catchments areas. There are very few female students with good passes in science subjects who can be enrolled in these Institutions. In order to promote female participation in science and engineering fields, technical institutions have adopted an affirmative action whereby female students with low passes in science subjects are provided with special access course programmes. Those who pass Access Course examinations are allowed to continue with the course of three years at technician level. This initiative has attributed to a promising progress in enrollments of female students in technical institutions. There are few challenges which Technical Institutions are facing; funding is one of the main challenges which negatively impact on this programme. Some of the female students with low passes in science subjects and who are interested with this field are coming from poor families, that they can not afford to pay a little tuition fee contributions, little payment for accommodation and they can not even afford to pay for their own meals. This paper explains the experience of Mbeya Institute of Science and Technology in using the Access Course Programmes to increase the female students’ enrollments in Science and Engineering training.enArticle