EDITOR’S COMMENT: Make graduates self-reliant
Oct 08, 2006
IT was jubilation last week at Makerere University as close to 6,000 graduates set their feet into the job market. This is a milestone achievement, but the journey has just begun.
IT was jubilation last week at Makerere University as close to 6,000 graduates set their feet into the job market. This is a milestone achievement, but the journey has just begun.
With the slimming employment opportunities, graduates should be helped to think beyond their transcripts. We need graduates whose impact can be felt.
Public universities should be commended for incorporating entrepreneurship into most of their degree programmes. This is a step in the right direction, but the fact that we still have more job seekers means there is a loophole. The failure of graduates in applying skills might be a signal of knowledge crammed, but not understood.
The universities ought to make its students less reliant on lecturers through project-based teaching. Universities also need to work closely with employers to build a feedback mechanism that monitors the relevance of skills.
Otherwise, they risk investing resources in irrelevant degree programmes.
With the slimming employment opportunities, graduates should be helped to think beyond their transcripts. We need graduates whose impact can be felt.
Public universities should be commended for incorporating entrepreneurship into most of their degree programmes. This is a step in the right direction, but the fact that we still have more job seekers means there is a loophole. The failure of graduates in applying skills might be a signal of knowledge crammed, but not understood.
The universities ought to make its students less reliant on lecturers through project-based teaching. Universities also need to work closely with employers to build a feedback mechanism that monitors the relevance of skills.
Otherwise, they risk investing resources in irrelevant degree programmes.