Colleges and universities urged to tailor their courses to job market

Graduates at a past graduation ceremony. FILE PHOTO | NATION MEDIA GROUP 

In Summary

• PMI Kenya Chapter president James Wanjagi said the gap between internship and training also needs to be addressed to give students a soft landing.
• PMI Events and Volunteer Programmes vice-president Irene Irungu said the institute will organise workshops for students to help them improve their practical skills in training.

By JOEL ODIDI
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Tertiary institutions have been urged to scale up mentorship programmes in order to churn out graduates who can meet the demands of the job market.

Project planning and management professionals have offered to work with universities to build the curriculum to make students more valuable in the job market.

According to the Project Management Institute (PMI) Kenya Chapter, there is a huge gap between training and the skill-set potential employers need, especially for project managers. Chapter president James Wanjagi said the gap between internship and training also needs to be addressed to give students a soft landing.

PRACTICAL SKILLS

“We want to get involved in policy-making, workshops and forums with employers, especially human resource practitioners, to demonstrate the value of project management,” Dr Wanjagi said during the PMI professional development day in Nairobi on Saturday.

PMI Events and Volunteer Programmes vice-president Irene Irungu said the institute will organise workshops for students to help them improve their practical skills in training.

“We’ve had students in project planning and management with very good papers, but when you employ them, you start spending more time and resources training and mentoring them. It becomes expensive for employers,” she said.

Only four out of 10 fresh graduates can deliver on projects when employed, Ms Irungu said.

CHANGING TRENDS

The one-day event attracted over 120 project management professionals and students. They were encouraged to improve their expertise to move with the fast-changing trends in project delivery. Finetexx Technology Ltd chief executive Ali Hassan Kassim, who gave the keynote address, urged project managers to be innovative.

“Due to changing times in the field, we stand on the brink of an industrial revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. Our response as project managers must be integrated and comprehensive,” he said.

He asked participants to learn from technology companies that are driving the new industrial revolution and are not confined within a single sector based on what they do, such as Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Alibaba.