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As graduates are looking for jobs and crying of the high unemployment levels, in the country, employers on the other hand are complaining of unavailable right skilled people to fill the available job positions said Michael Niyetegeka an IT consultant and Students’ Facilitator as he opened the 5th Annual Madhvani Foundation Career Guidance and Entrepreneurship training workshop that was aimed at equipping students with practical skills that employers are looking for in the work places.
Despite their academic documents that show excellent performances at the university, graduates have failed to demonstrate employable skills at the workplace that is why Madhavani Foundation a charitable fund saw it fit to additionally train their beneficiaries in an aim to prepare them for the real competitive world after school.
In a recent report on the lack of employment among graduates in Africa, the British Council noted that there has been an increase in higher education in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade. But at the same time, too few graduates have acquired the skills they need to find work.
According to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ recent 18th Annual Global CEO Survey it revealed that business leaders are more concerned than ever about being able to find the right people to fill roles ahead of planned increased hires over the next year. Narrowing down the data down to Africa, an alarmingly, 96 percent of CEOs were found mostly concerned about the lack of skills available in-market, explaining the trend of many multinationals preferring to “buy in” talent into their Africa-based operations
Ugandan students still lack thinking skills that can otherwise empowered them to explore the many opportunities around them. Observed Michael Niyetegeka. He added that as a means of adding value to oneself to become a competitive brand, graduates and even people at managerial levels need to embrace the habit of reading so as to broaden their knowledge base and open their imaginations to new ideas.
While mentoring the students during the workshop Michael took the graduates through the common mistakes many make when they go for job interviews. The most common being uninformed he urged the graduates to always read and inform themselves of the issues that surround them as opposed to just the ones that concern them. He explained professionalism as another key issue that every employer looks out for in an employee which entails understanding their duties and roles and being able to deliver on the expected deliverables.
Over time a number of remedies have been suggested to curb unemployment levels among the youths in the country Joseph Okwakol, then National Youth Council chairperson in 2009, during an International Youth Day celebrations held on 8th August 2009 Petitioned President Yoweri Museveni to reduce the retirement age for civil servants from 65-55 to create room for the younger generation that is annually churned from various institutions of study to the labor market.
Youths have also been advised to embrace the entrepreneurship drive and become self-reliant through enterprise creations.