With reports that 87% of Uganda’s graduates can’t find jobs, it brings to light, again, the disaster that is Uganda’s job market. Indeed, it leaves much to be desired.
Now, whereas Uganda’s job market is deficient, and whereas it continues to exacerbate the problem of unemployment that the country is grappling with, there is also the unceasing reality of graduates who are not skilled enough and not best suited for the existent jobs however deficient the job market.
As such, one then wonders whether Uganda’s graduates are actually best suited to grasp the few existent opportunities. For example can it be argued that the high rate of unemployment among Ugandan graduates is partly, if not largely, caused by their own and their parents’ mistakes in making career decisions?
It is against this backdrop that in pondering the questions above, Education Concepts Limited, an Education Consultancy that creates unique practical concepts aimed at guiding teachers and students at all levels of the education system has sought to rejuvenate, emphasize and promote the concept of career guidance among students at the earliest level possible in their education journey.
The consultancy set off its initiative with the first Western Uganda Career Guidance Fair that was held on 11th/March/2017 at Ntare School in Mbarara. Organised under the theme “Shaping Career Decisions in the Context of Uganda’s Competitive Job Market”,. It was attended by students from a spectrum of schools across the region.
The fair kicked off with a Keynote address from Mrs. Amanda Ngabirano, a public speaker, Makerere University Lecturer, Move Mobility National Representative and World Cycling Alliance African Representative, who set the pace for the day. Given that Amanda has previously spoken at the World Bank in Washington and in several major capitals of the world, students were eagerly waiting to hear from her and she didn’t disappoint.
She was immediately followed by Mbarara University’s Solomon Agum, who gave a talk on choosing the right subject combinations and how that is primarily a crucial step
in shaping one’s desired career path. This, as a lot of students do combinations simply because they either sound romantic or because they are perceived as being easy. Some stay
away from certain combinations simply because they are not associated with hot girls and cool dudes, yet subject combinations are more important than just the stereotype
perceptions attached to them.
The afternoon session was kicked off by The Chwezi Code author Nicklison Twinamatsiko, who delivered a talk on the role of communication skills in career advancement.
Nicklison is an Engineer, Kyambogo University Lecturer and a regular contributor of articles to National newspapers and journals. His topic came in handy, given that a lot of graduates out there can barely communicate.
That was later to be followed by a practical session from Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board (UBTEB) accredited institutions, which shared business and technical skills. To the amusement of participating students, this team even made candles on location, using locally available inputs, clearly showing the students that they actually can start small businesses of their own.
The First Western Uganda Career Guidance Fair then went into its final part dubbed “the round-table session” that involved dividing students into smaller groups and giving
each group a facilitator from among the speakers and UBTEB team.
These round table sessions were so intense that as the fair neared its closure, students practically didn’t want to leave.
In all, it can be said that such fairs, if propagating the concept of career guidance, are so much of necessity because it was clear that so many students were in the dark in as far as shaping career decisions is concerned.
