High unemployment rate, but where are the appropriate skills?

It is a well-known fact that employers always complain that university graduates are ill-equipped for the workplace.

Employers say they always need to retrain graduates for between three and six months before they become productive.

Many university dons, on the other hand, say they have no apologies to make, since the university mandate is to teach principles and concepts, and not necessarily the skills needed by employer.

They argue that the skills required in the industry will keep changing as new technologies emerge, while concepts and principles last forever. It is therefore up to the graduate to keep upgrading their skill-set to fit into the workplace.

This is the genesis of the classic disconnect between the universities and the job market, each side blaming the other, as graduates get caught up in the middle, and opportunities for being productively engaged reduce.

OBSESSION WITH DEGREES

The situation is made worse by an employment market that seems to demand degrees from anyone and everyone – even for roles that may not require one.

This has led to an overdose of degree holders in the market, each fighting for the very limited managerial opportunities, while the technical-level opportunities continue experiencing vacancies.

The so-called ''upgrading'' of national polytechnics to universities has made this problem more acute. National polytechnics used to produce very specialised technical skills that the industry required to turn the wheels of the economy.

At the moment the country seems to be focused on producing more degree-level workers at the expense of technical-level personnel, leading to the current mismatch between what the economy demands and what the university system is producing.

WAY OUT

The easiest way to fix this problem is restoring the glory of national polytechnics, especially by hiring people with technical skills and paying them well.

Why is the Kenyan education system skewed towards degree-level graduates, with employers placing more premium on degree graduates, yet in many instances, the vacancy advertised prefers a highly specialised diploma graduate?

Think of affordable housing, one of President Kenyatta's Big Four agenda items. How many engineers vis-à-vis technicians would we need if we are to build half a million homes every year?

Clearly, for every engineer needed, we will require more electrical, plumbing, carpentry and other technical-level personnel. In short, the economy needs more polytechnics than universities, at a time when we are "upgrading" our polytechnics to universities.

Eventually, employers end up hiring university graduates and are then forced to train them to deliver on technical tasks for which they are ill-equipped.

Before national polytechnics regain their lost glory as the source of highly skilled labour, universities should consider striking a balance between offering theoretical concepts and exposing their students to practical skills.

One way to go about this would be by setting up vibrant innovation hubs within campus, so that students can have opportunities to practice what they learn, with a view to providing solutions to industry challenges.

Essentially, we must choose to bridge the gap between industry and academia, or continue witnessing the blame game between the two stakeholders in the economy.

Mr Walubengo is a lecturer at Multimedia University of Kenya, Faculty of Computing and IT. Email: [email protected], Twitter: @Jwalu