Ponder My Thoughts
By Andrew Keili, Freetown, Sierra Leone
Help! I am an employed graduate
Accompanied by family and friends, our new graduates of the University of Sierra
Leoe, grinning like Cheshire cats thronged to the National Stadium for the University congregation. The sheer number of graduates- some 2,000 compelled the University to use the stadium this time round. All the years of toil had yielded fruit and they would now be accorded the recognition due them.
I am reluctant to be a critic of the University but cannot fathom how you could invite tens of thousands of people to an occasion like this and have over three quarters of them not hear what was being said. The sound system was awful and unless you were in the Presidential stand, you could not hear what was being said.
But let me get back to the exhortation by the President and Chancellor in his speech.
“Among you today, I see teachers who will serve our free quality education. I see engineers who can construct roads, build bridges or the assembly plants that will start local manufacturing and packaging or support mineral exploration and extraction. I see agro-business producers and extension workers. I see young entrepreneurs and innovators who will develop ICT penetration and deploy big data to develop the nation and make governance even more effective. I see doctors and nurses who will provide accessible and quality healthcare. I see food scientists, lawyers, social workers, policy-makers, soldiers, police…well, and even politicians. Above all else, I see promise – the promise that each of you will give abundantly of your individual talents to develop our nation, our Sierra Leone. We may no longer be the Athens of West Africa but we can become an incubator of new ideas, a hub of innovation, a driver of bold entrepreneurship and a centre of excellence. That is the new Sierra Leone that each of us must be committed to building. Let us be the change that we want to see in this land that we love, Sierra Leone,” he said.
Kudos to him. Very inspiring!
One could not however as a realist help but ponder how this massive number of proud young people would be absorbed into the workforce. This was not however a time for reflection on what may befall them, but rather a time to claim their coveted prizes after years of toil. Many will inevitably end up being unemployed and join their colleagues in the long employment queue. This is the typical situation in Sub-Saharan Africa. A major challenge for the region is creating enough jobs for its growing population. A recent World Bank report estimates that as many as 11 million young people in Sub-Saharan Africa will be joining the job market every year for the next decade. Too few graduates gain the skills they need to find work. Employers across the region complain of a lack of basic, technical and transferable skills. The issue of employability is certainly a problem. Employability can be defined as the possession of relevant knowledge, skills and other attributes that facilitate the gaining and maintaining of worthwhile employment. It has been estimated that, on average, it takes a university graduate five years to secure a job in Kenya.
A recent British Council sponsored study (Can higher education solve Africa’s job crisis? Understanding graduate employability in Sub-Saharan Africa) states:
“There is widespread concern about the work readiness of graduates. While employers are generally satisfied with the disciplinary knowledge of students, they perceive significant gaps in their IT skills, personal qualities (e.g. reliability) and transferable skills (e.g. team working and problem solving). In many cases, lecturers lack adequate qualifications and preparation themselves, and transmission-based pedagogy and rote learning are commonplace. Universities have also suffered
a severe lack of physical resources, including buildings, laboratories and libraries.”
In Sierra Leone there is very little money spent on vocational education and the amounts spent on tertiary education do not necessarily provide value for money. Every year our Universities and colleges churn out thousands of graduates who will join the throng of already unemployed graduates. The unemployment rate in Sierra Leone, by whatever standards used for measurement is unacceptably high. Some 80% of the urban and rural labour force may be under-utilised. Whatever the exact figure, graduate and non-graduate unemployment figures are clearly unacceptable.
So, what is the solution?
The British Council study opines: “Beyond general learning experiences, more specific provision is also required to inform students about career opportunities, to enable them to reflect on their personal aptitudes and develop them further where necessary. Careers advisory services are an obvious focal point in this regard, as well as job fairs and other interactions with employers. Closer links are needed with employers, in terms of updating curricula and involving industry representatives in course delivery, as well as providing quality work placements. Without doubt, universities cannot solve the jobs crisis alone, and coordinated action across all sectors, including macroeconomic policy, is necessary. Yet providing high-quality university education is central to the task. Failing to do so will hamper economic growth, weaken democracy and good governance, and leave a generation without the opportunity to pursue their ambitions for a better future.”
In Sierra Leone, the private sector does its own share of absorption but this merely scratches the surface. How many Financial and Business services graduates can the Banks or other financial services organisations absorb? How many Engineers can the mining companies or infrastructure projects employ? What happens to the graduates in the Arts, social sciences and peace and conflict studies? The reality is that the civil service is bloated and the capacity of MDAs to absorb graduates is severely limited. The problem is serious but then our Universities and Colleges continue to churn out these bright hopeful young people in their numbers every year. How far does the government go in actively encouraging the private sector to thrive?
What we need is a concerted government programme that encompasses the participation and collaboration between various Ministries-Education, Labour and employment and Youth Ministries in particular. Tackling the problem obviously requires them to build a nexus with other Ministries like Trade and Industry (spearheading the local content initiative), employers and universities and colleges. They may want to answer the following questions: Are courses offered relevant for the job market? Do they keep relevant statistics on recent graduate students? Do they have job placement programmes? Do they seek the views of various employers on the relevance of courses and performance of graduates? Do graduates need some sort of postgraduate crash training to prepare them for the job market?
The expansion of the private sector will go a long way towards addressing the problem. No country can develop well without a vibrant private sector but the local private sector is fraught with difficulties. Many local service providers are faced with financial and operating capacity issues. A major new initiative could be in the area of internship. Encouraging companies to have one year internship programmes for graduates and training them for the job market whilst paying them a stipend could be a good way to go. Companies will however be loath to implement such a scheme unless they are given some sort of incentive-granting them tax incentives may not be such a bad idea. The logical question is what happens after such a programme. First, they will be better prepared for the job market. Second if they are trained in entrepreneurship skills, they may be able to fan out on their own. Also, if the employer wishes to expand his operations, he has a ready pool of workers to choose from.
To be able to provide jobs the economy needs to improve drastically. We must also make a conscious effort to improve upon the participation of locals in our economy. Some local companies, though competent are hampered by lack of capital to expand and improve on the services they provide. Another factor militating against greater local participation is the dearth of technical skills amongst middle level technicians. The local content policy should be vigorously promoted. Specifically the policy gives measures to promote the use of locally sourced goods and services, to promote domestic small and medium enterprises through targeted private and government procurement, to encourage employment and training of Sierra Leoneans at various managerial levels, and to facilitate transfer of knowledge and skills from large foreign and domestic investors to local small and medium enterprises.
The national youth service scheme should be encouraged and implemented seriously. This will give young people an opportunity to gain employability skills and job experience, inculcate and promote national integration and cohesion across geographic and ethnic divides through participatory engagements that contribute to national development and provide them with an opportunity to develop critical thinking, discover their creative potential and learn different skills to enable them respond to the current needs of Sierra Leone.
But what about the new graduates? What would be my advice to them?
Many graduates cannot even write application letters well and their resumes are filled with glaring spelling mistakes. Often, their Managers do not fare any better. I recall the story of a Manager at a parastatal I worked for on contract who would always blame his Secretary when some spelling mistakes or incomplete sentences appeared in his reports. "Dis gal fool", he would tell me in exasperation. When this got to the Secretary’s ear she secretly went to my office, got out the original manuscript and announced with glee "Nar in write am Sir.Dis man pas mak".
I know our new graduates will endeavour to improve on this aspect-my own little exhortation!
There are obviously a few things in my experience that the new graduate can do to improve on his/her employability. Here are a few:
1. Ensure you prepare your CV well and keep both physical and electronic copies. If you are not sure it is well written, get some assistance and make it presentable. Disseminate this as widely as possible to potential employers or others in influential positions who could be of assistance
2. Take some extra classes if you can. Computer classes, short courses in management, finance or some relevant courses will help.
3. Be prepared to take advantage of short-term opportunities of any sort eg. taking on short term contract as enumerators, offering to assist others even if it means doing pro bono work. Should a job in your preferred area not be available, consider taking up any job in the meantime.
4. Do not despair and keep pestering potential employers/influential helpers.
Be patient. Remember that “All things cometh to he who waiteth if he worketh like heck while he waiteth!”
Don’t despair if things do not work out immediately. A university degree certificate can open doors, but without a rich learning experience underpinning the degree, it cannot change lives, release potential and transform society.
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