Why youth need technical skills before leaving university

Mar 15, 2017

Advanced skills in academic areas aren’t going to help a young adult out of every jam he is likely to face in the next few years

By Michael Woira

The education sector and the government have very much tried out what they must but at times things can never happen as expected due to many factors.

Uganda has very many youth and we are educated and have graduated but the jobs may not be available for all of us due very many reason that you may know, I will not dwell on that but will put my emphasis on the way forward to the joblessness that Ugandan youths are facing.

Some time back while I was still young and in school, I actually thought that when I come out of school, I would be a commodity and someone would want me.

But instead, I got hit with a wall of being not wanted whatsoever in the industry though I used to believe in the unwritten promise of a post-secondary education: work hard at school, and you'll end up with a good and stable job. Being unemployed while having a degree is kind of a kick in the face, if anything, it's a setback.

You have all this debt and this degree, and everyone has one, but it doesn't get you further in life sometimes because you have laid many plans to fulfill and you now see it's the right time to act but surprising you find no work for yourself. It's so hurting though I at times put the blame on the various stages of education that we passed through to get to being graduates.

I remember while we were still young, we used to be asked many questions at home about what we wanted to be when we grow up. It's a question we all were asked as kids.

Parents and educators want their students to be equipped with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed, but too many students in Uganda aren't getting started on learning the technical and professional skills they need until after they leave high school.

Everyone graduates from high school knowing how to read, write and do basic math (hopefully). But to be a self-sufficient adult, those skills are not enough. In fact, they're nowhere close to enough.

Advanced skills in academic areas aren't going to help a young adult out of every jam he is likely to face in the next few years. Most of those predicaments probably will have nothing to do with literature, trigonometry or world history.

What we could have been taught at school would be how to navigate a job interview or a lunch with co-workers? How to be responsible with our money, how to relate with different kinds of people, how to be practical by teaching us some technical works etc and I think some schools teach many of these skills, either directly or woven into other academic subjects. But it's up to parents to make sure their children can take care of themselves in the world after graduating.

When most of us graduate from college, we're still in our early twenties. In other words, we haven't even lived a third of our lives yet. To have the details figured out (What jobs will I work throughout my career? When will I figure out my greater purpose? When will I "settle down?") is extremely difficult, if not impossible. Life is constantly in flux.

But as youth, we should consider an approach that embraces this likelihood of change, and observe that over which you have control and that over which you don't. Opportunities and setbacks alike present themselves in unexpected forms, and have a ripple-effect of change.

Rather than place your energy towards acquiring a specific job, focus that energy on acquiring the skills and growing existing talents to steer you in the desired direction.

While you have considerable control over what skills and talents you foster, you have less control over when opportunities arise and what types are available (unless you decide to create your own).

Each day presents new challenges, opportunities and insight into who we are as individuals. Our goals get adjusted accordingly — what we dreamt for yesterday may well change tomorrow, we may need to pivot unexpected or take a road less traveled, and that's okay. It's all part of the growth process.

But as members of the youth, we have a resource that our parents don't and many of the coaches and mentors have run out of time. Time is one of the most valuable resources we have as individuals.

Given our youth, we have an opportunity to try ideas, new industries and hustle with a lower opportunity cost should our efforts "fail" though failure is arguably in the eyes of the beholder. At risk of sounding over romantic about the benefits of taking risks, the lessons learned through each "failure" directly apply to the buildup of success. Success, contrary to popular belief, is seldom "overnight."

Success happens as a result of discipline, tenacity and the application of lessons learned often over a span of years. Each new piece of knowledge be it from an error or a small win, ladders up to the ultimate success.

Give yourself room to learn, and consider taking chances be it to taking some time to innovate, to start your own business, to explore a craft/industry, farming, poetry and many other small scale business that can help you survive as you wait for the job of your profession than just being a jobless youth as some have even branded themselves the Poor youth and the Jobless brotherhood.

It's so sad that some youth feel totally happy being called poor youth yet some of us who have grown up in poor families are tired of being poor and it's the reason we use all opportunities availed by government to the youth to curb the poverty status that our parents lived in.

As I put my pen down, I would like my fellow youth to always think about the importance of talent and other technical skills that can help them navigate through this world happily after graduating because we cannot all expect being employed but let's be job creators and with that life will be always good after campus.

Writer is a patriotic Ugandan

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