Graduates celebrate after completing their degree studies. PHOTO | FILE
The rate of joblessness around Africa is very depressing. According to the World Bank, youths account for 60% of all of Africa’s jobless. Yet, our continent has the largest population of young people in the world! Against this sordid scenario, we have millions of young people who don’t school beyond primary education, some are discontinued at O-level, others A-Level, and a lucky few manage to reach university and graduate.
Even for the youth who manage to get university degrees, many times, it is not easy to get a job. Some have very commendable qualifications, but end up searching for jobs for years.
About four years ago, Kelvin Balogun, then the President of Coca-Cola, Central, East, and West Africa, told a conference that half of 10 million graduates from over 668 universities in Africa who graduate every year do not get a job. Has this changed? Your guess is as good as mine.
African Development Bank, in one of its findings, indicated that the unemployment sting is even worse for young women than young men. According to the bank, for most Sub-Saharan Africa nations, men get jobs more easily than women even when they have the same skills and experience.
This should be a great concern for every government, not only in words but in action. But then, even though Africa is faced with joblessness, even among graduates, it does not mean that education is less important.
At independence, most African countries had very few African graduates and each year they would be absorbed mostly by the public sector and decades later, the private sector also became a serious employer.
As the population has continued to increase, so has the number of universities and graduates, every year, and so the competition in the job market.
Both the public and private sectors don’t want any graduates, but they want smart graduates who are able to add value to the institutions or corporations they commit to.
In Tanzania, this is the season for graduation ceremonies from the mainstream universities.
I have a few words for today’s young graduates. Just like in the past, to reach university is no mean task, and one should be grateful.
They should know that, by fighting it out, and making it- or rather graduating, it means they are capable people.
Being capable means that they can be able to catapult themselves into the world and make something out of their lives.
The worst thing a graduate does is to stay idle, as they await opportunities worth of graduate education.
One of the most irritating questions fresh graduates don’t like is to be asked about their job experience. The natural answer would be how do you expect me to get experience when I was schooling/in college doing my degree studies?
Yes, a graduate should have some job experience, whether obtained from formal or informal system. If you are a fresh graduate and you have been helping your parents or other relatives improve their small business that is also a great experience.
If you have been volunteering to teach at a children’s home that makes a lot of differences. Make sure as you look for a job, you have something you are doing that, even if it may not pay you, is developmental for honing up your skills as a young adult.
The world rewards hardworking, smart, and creative people. Not those who wait for jobs to come, one must get out and showcase his or her capabilities.
And if a job is not forthcoming, a hand in small business and agriculture can turn you into a future employer. Please don’t stay idle or just look for a job, just start utilizing your capabilities immediately. And remember, it’s ok to look for career advice.
