Everyone is into transparency these days. You would think you would know all there is to know when you interact with your prof. in college or campus. Would you be wrong? Here are the top five things your prof won’t tell you:
- In KENYA, the name of your learning institution does not matter when looking for a job. Where you go to school is not as important as in the past because employers are more focused on skills than the college an individual attended.
- The most important skills in the market are SOFT skills. These include good communication skills, the ability to work as part of a team and the ability to learn. Beyond that, the skills required will depend on the particular job.
- A first-class honor degree WITHOUT skills is as useless as getting a FAIL. Employers are no longer excited by the no. of A's in your transcript since the QUALITY of education in Kenya is beyond remedy. This is a result of cheating, Sexually transmitted grades, forged transcripts, outlived curriculum, etc. Employers are more focused on skills than shinning academic transcripts.
- More than 600,000 young graduates in Kenya join the job market each year, but only about 40,000 succeed in securing formal employment. The education system needs to be revised to churn out students that are self-reliant and not wholly dependent on getting employed. Students need to leave school with skills that they can turn into business opportunities that will help them lead a good life.
- Most of the courses offered in private and public universities are not tailored to the job market needs. This mismatch of skills is to be blamed for graduates failing to secure a job or adapt to their jobs.
So, what is the way forward?
University students in Kenya should wake up from the slumber and realize that the higher the number of learned people in the society, the fewer the employment opportunities in the country. We are no longer living in the 19th century when all fresh graduates were guaranteed to securing a formal job.
Comrades should wake up from their comfort zones and make use of their different skills and talents to start their own business enterprises.
To those who would still like to be employed, the hiring process is about much more than having an unbeatable transcript or the institutions where you graduated from. Many employers not only match candidate soft and technical skills, experience with a job opening’s stated requirements, but also carefully consider those elusive qualities such as personality, temperament, career progression and a host of other legitimate elements.
It is therefore important for students to work on their personal development to avoid future disappointments as a job seeker or entrepreneur! This covers activities that improve awareness and identity, develop talents and potential, build human capital and facilitate employability, enhance the quality of life and contribute to the realization of dreams and aspirations.