UDSM moves to curb skills mismatch

Dar es Salaam. Following frequent complaints by employers about university graduates lacking employability skills and other attributes required in the labour market, the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) has launched a new strategy to address the issue.

For about a year now, UDSM has been conducting tracer studies by visiting major employers to establish existing shortcomings that affect graduates’ employability.

The culmination of these efforts was reached yesterday when the UDSM’s Industrial Advisory Committees were launched.

Read: Why graduates in Tanzania are having a tough time

The committees, which have drawn employers from the private sector, mostly in agriculture, ICT, engineering and marine science/blue economy, will advise UDSM on the best curricula for its graduates.

The director of higher education in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Dr Kenneth Hosea, said the ministry had spent a year reviewing policies and curricula from primary to university level in response to directives issued by President Samia Suluhu Hassan.

“I decided to involve you, representatives of the private sector, first because the review of our higher education curricula depends a lot on you as major recipients of our university graduates,” he said.

Providing statistics on the provision of higher education in the country, Dr Hosea said the average participation of Tanzanians in higher education (gross enrollment ratio) is 6.1 percent against the sub-Saharan Africa average of 9.4 percent.

“The average participation in higher education for our Kenyan neighbours is 11 percent, so we still have to send more people to universities,” he noted.

Drv Hosea said for a country to have an industrialised economy, its universities must produce higher-level skilled graduates, middle-level skilled graduates and lower-level skilled graduates through the internationally recognised Skills Mixed Ratio

“The number of higher-level skilled graduates from our universities is only 3.5 percent instead of 12 percent. To attain a middle-income industrialised economy, we need a 12 percent or higher level of skills, so we must fill this gap,” he said.

For his part, UDSM vice chancellor William Anangisye said through the Higher Education for Economic Transformation (HEET) project, UDSM was allocated more than $47 million to turn the tide in its service provision.

“To attain this goal, UDSM cannot go it alone. That is why today we have called important stakeholders from the industrial sector with the aim of launching advisory councils to help us lead in the production of industry-based graduates.

“We are reviewing our curricula and through these committees we will be able to find a way of making our curricula suit demand in the labour market and help to further transform our economy,” Prof Anangisye said.

Elaborating further, UDSM deputy vice chancellor (Academic) Bonaventure Lutinwa said the launch of the councils marked the beginning of cooperation with the industry in matters of curriculum changes.

“We have started the process of making our curriculum to suit current needs. The review has focused on the important areas of content, skills and attitude so that they can be easily employed,” he noted.

Prof Lutinwa said the exercise of reviewing the existing curricula through tracer studies would be completed by the end of June and the new curriculum is expected to kick off in the next academic year.

A participant, Sustainable Agriculture Tanzania (SAT) CEO Janet Maro, said their involvement in creating curricula would provide a solution to graduate skills-mismatch.

“Actually, strategy should be modeled by other universities because it will help a lot in the next few years. Our job is to say what we need in graduates and the college will now focus on that. We will also improve the relationship in providing productive field practice for students,” she said.