Are Tanzanian graduates unemployable?

By Emmanuel Onyango

Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE).

Mixed opinions have been raised as to whether good command of English language or inadequate skills among Tanzanian graduates push them out of the job market in East African Region and beyond.

However, experts have claimed that it is not about the universal programme among the fields of studies in the higher learning institutions that keeps local graduates at bay, but rather the command of English language.

 

Economist from the Association of Tanzanian Employers (ATE) Labour Service Oscar Mkude has told The Guardian in Dar es Salaam that poor command of English language among Tanzanian graduates prompts employers into outsourcing qualified professionals overseas. 

 

Mkude said fresh graduates are ill-reputed for having no confidence in themselves and for lack of innovative and creative skills in facing the turbulent market and that they need to be pushed and kept under constant supervision while they do not deliver to market expectations.  

 

“Tanzanian graduates are good at theories, but weak in practice especially in areas of marketing and advertising, information technology, communication and hotel management,” he said.

 

The study conducted by the Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) and the East African Business Council (EABC) to establish employers’ perceptions on graduates in the East African Region shows that more than 50 per cent of graduates are half-baked as they lack basic workplace proficiencies.

 

This means that university students are graduating without attaining basic and technical skills required in the job market, denying the five East African Community (EAC) economies the quality human capital needed to grow.

 

Executive Secretary of Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA) Prof Mayunga Nkunya said during an EAC Higher Education Quality Assurance Forum in Arusha recently that universities in the Region were producing a theoretical, unskilled and unpractical labour force.

 

According to him, employers had been complaining that graduates lack self-confidence at work and that they are too weak to translate the knowledge they obtain from universities into practical experience, awaiting instructions over what to do.

 

He said Uganda is the worst among the peers, with only 37 per cent of its graduates fit for the job market, while Tanzania has 39 per cent of its degree holders rated as competent.

 

 Comparatively, 45 per cent and 48 per cent of graduates in Burundi and Rwanda respectively, are competent for the job market. Kenya has the best-rated graduates, with 49 per cent found up to the task.

 

However, experts also argue that job opportunities are marred with discrimination, favouritism and relations and not just qualifications and competence.

 

The Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) Prof Florens Luoga said it was not true that Tanzanian graduates are incompetent because some employers look into candidates’ place of origin and ethnicity to qualify for jobs.

 

“Pointing at Tanzania graduates as incompetent is an insult. There is an attitude among employers that Kenyans and Ugandans are competent because of the language,” he said adding, “we must rectify this trend”.

 

Prof Luoga said there is ethnic bias in most Kenyan and Ugandan companies operating in the country and it is rare for Tanzanian graduates to be employed in such companies.

 

“Job market in the country has the ‘blanket condemnation’, an inferior perception of incompetence towards Tanzanian graduates,” he said.

 

According to him, employers are also reluctant to give room for undergraduates’ practical training, thus making most graduates to be overloaded with theoretical knowledge upon graduating.

 

“We are all born with differing understanding capacity. It is obvious to find both competent and incompetence graduates everywhere in the world,” he said. 

 

In 2012, Kampala International University (KIU), Dar es Salaam campus was allegedly accused of favouring Ugandans for jobs with figures indicating that 80percent of its staff members were from Uganda while Tanzania and Kenya equally shared the remaining 20 percent, a claim that was refuted by its marketing department.  

 

Susan John, a Secondary School teacher in the city said lack of employment in the country is inevitable especially with the integration processes of EAC, Southern African Development Community (SADC) and Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) countries.

 

“Tanzanian graduates need to shift from their local perception of the market to global outlook,” she said.

 

However, Ms John said there is a need to look at the root of employment challenges from the primary level over how pupils are taught instead of jumping to conclusions.

 

“We should put more emphasis on practical training than in theory in our teachings. The problem starts at the primary level and if not rectified the country will continue to produce incompetent graduates,” she insisted.

 

However, the Executive Secretary of Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), Prof Yunus Mgaya said lack of confidence among Tanzanian graduates is a great concern when it comes to employment opportunities.

 

“Most graduates lack confident due to poor command of English, an official business language, failing them in job interviews,” he said.

Prof Mgaya told the Guardian that local fresh graduates also lacked current affairs in their fields of speciality and the country at large, an aspect that puts them at bay in the job market.

 

“Tanzanian fresh graduates - Form IV and Form VI leavers are knowledgeable enough about their areas of theoretical studies but lack confidence in themselves when it comes to practical experience.

 

We need an effective mechanism that will emphasise on the use of English language as a medium of instruction.” 

 

According to Dr Halifa Kondo, a lecturer of Mass Communication at the Open University of Tanzania, incompetent lecturers also produce incompetent graduates.

 

“Lecturers fail to groom undergraduates into qualified professionals. The government needs to look into the modalities of sourcing for lecturers and staffing sufficiency in both public and private higher learning institutions,” he said.