Graduates take long to secure jobs amid skills mismatch

For thousands of young Kenyans leaving university each year, graduation is followed not by a job offer but by months of uncertainty.

A new study by the Commission for University Education (CUE) shows that graduates take an average of 11.6 months to secure their first jobs, with four in every ten spending more than a year looking for employment.

Only 25.3 percent of graduates get into employment within six months of leaving university, while 34.7 percent take between six and 12 months.

The prolonged wait has exposed  a growing gap between university training and employer expectations, with employers saying many graduates lack the practical experience and workplace skills needed to contribute immediately.

The findings come as competition for jobs intensifies, with employers increasingly looking beyond academic qualifications when recruiting new staff.

While graduates generally consider themselves prepared for employment, employers identified shortcomings in practical experience, communication, problem-solving, adaptability and other workplace competencies.

For some graduates, the challenge is not that university failed to provide useful skills, but that they had to acquire additional competencies once they entered the workplace.

Stecy Atieno, who studied Mass Media and Communication, says she has applied some of the skills she learnt at university but had to acquire others after joining the workforce.

“I studied Mass Media and Communication and yes, some of the things I studied at school I've had to apply them at work but I had to learn other skills at the job,” she says.

Atieno says universities should make practical training mandatory before graduation, arguing that many students may not seek out practical experience on their own.

“I think universities should introduce mandatory practical classes to students. Most schools only focus on the theory parts and leave the students to hustle for the practicals but as we all know, most students will not do that. So the practicals should be mandatory before graduation,” she says.

For Christine Ndinda, who studied Bachelor of Education in Home Science and Physical Education, most of the skills she learnt at university have been applicable in her workplace. She however, had to acquire additional training in safeguarding ,keeping children safe and protecting them from harm after joining the workplace.

“The skill, a new skill that I needed to learn when I came to my workplace was about safeguarding, which is keeping children safe and protecting them from harm,” she says.

Hempstone Musyoki says university equipped him with skills he continues to use, including photography, videography, communication, media law and organisational communication. He also credits his training with developing soft skills such as articulation, which he says he uses when dealing with clients.

However, Musyoki says he has had to acquire other skills independently because he feels university curricula have not fully kept pace with changes in the workplace.

“I feel that the curriculum is not fully updated to cater for the modern problems in the corporate world. Because modern problems require modern solutions, which are not yet easily found in the curriculum that we used when we were in school,” he says.

He cites artificial intelligence as one area he had to learn after university.

The mismatch means that for some graduates, earning a degree does not necessarily translate into being fully ready for the workplace.

CUE says universities need to put greater emphasis on learning that gives students an opportunity to apply what they are taught before they graduate.

The commission recommends strengthening internships, industrial attachments, work-integrated learning, laboratory training and project-based learning. Such programmes should be longer, properly supervised and designed in consultation with industry.

The report also calls for closer ties between universities and employers, including involving industry players in curriculum development, mentorship, workplace training and graduate recruitment.