Job options around university campuses

A secretarial bureau at Islamic University In Uganda during a slow phase. Many such bureaus dot university campuses in Uganda. Photo by Abubaker Lubowa 

By Christine w. wanjala

 

For students, universities are the hub of learning, for the lecturers and administration staff, they are a source of employment. For yet another group, their environs and the business it attracts mean employment. Here are some of the jobs you may find around a university.

Photographer
The studios seem to follow the trail of students. Outside the school and around the hostels. Makerere University Business School (Mubs), especially seems to have the most studios per square metre. The job here is to take pictures of the students and Photoshop them to their satisfaction. It is a job that relies heavily on the student calendar. You are really busy around graduation and when school is on holiday, you go through a lean phase.

Dry cleaner
You probably cannot fathom why students need a dry cleaner. Maybe it is the graduation gown, maybe it is for the more financially able student who shuns using the cleaning ladies who do the work manually. Anyway, there is one right next to Makerere University small gate.

Waiter
If I needed to get a job fast, I would try one of the restaurants near one of our many universities, see if I can wait on the hordes who descend there for lunch and dinner. Granted the restaurants are never that glamorous but they do employ quite a good number. You could also get a job waiting tables at the bars which, mushroom around universities.

Shop attendant
Again shops selling all sorts of wares are to be seen everywhere there is a student population. This means a whole lot of shop attendants. They man stationery shops, mini markets confectioneries, general shops. No one can guarantee nine-to-five working conditions seeing as areas around universities rarely sleep, but it is a job.

Tailor
For obvious reasons, students buy a lot of second-hand clothes they need adjusted so they fit as new. Come to think of it, this could also be the story behind those dry cleaners.

Boutique sales assistant


The title sounds glamorous. It is not; I used it for lack of a better word to describe, the people who work in the little clothes shops that surround universities. If the concentrations of these shops around universities is anything to go by then students are the biggest consumers of second-hand clothes. They keep second hand imports alive. From KIU to Makerere University the stalls closest to the school are occupied by brightly coloured outfits on dummies. Your job as sales assistant involves making sure you get as much from the student from one item of clothing as much as possible.

Bank teller
Financial institutions will set up around any self-respecting university. And they need to be manned, from bank manager, to sales people, who try to get students to open accounts to the one or two tellers.

Mobile money attendant


A student may not see the need for an account but they will definitely have a mobile money account. Around KIU Cavendish and Mubs, the mobile money includes that from neighboring countries to cater for the Kenyan, Rwandese, Sudanese and Tanzanian Students. You will need to be a numbers wizard. Some of the mobile money centres also operate as mini forex bureaus.

Hairdresser
There are numerous salons around universities. Pedicurists fall in the same category; the business of beauty is brisk around universities.

Tutor
It is becoming a trend for specialised colleges to set up right next to universitites. The sense in it I do not see since at a university most of the people are already enrolled for some course or other. I guess it is taking the product to the target audience, maybe they aim to do something our universities are commonly accused of not doing, hands on training. Right outside the university or close by you will see this ICT training facility, or that business institute or public relations something or other. The colleges employ tutors.

Food vendor



These ones do not necessarily operate from a restaurant, they just need a little space maybe a corner or a back alley to station their wares.