As University students approach their last semester, the pressure to graduate is getting worse, and they are afraid of the dark ahead of them. The only hope available especially to bachelor of arts students is to volunteer or do internships even though the opportunity is narrow.
Do civil society organisations and other forms of non-governmental organisations, profits and non-profit institutions have any role to play in assisting the government to bridge the unemployment gap at a time? Are there any government schemes that are functional and guarantee to restore hope to the new Swan of educated youths to be discharged?
What does a graduate from a ‘hohe hahe family’ expect to bring hope out of the streets’ dreadful stories of unemployment and the testimonies of staying for longer than five years to get a stable job?
This article intended to raise the issue of unemployment as a lack of preparation of all, the government, the market or private sector and the graduates.
Since Tanzania has emerged into a Liberal economy, people have never thought of urgency to move with the world, they retain their ujamaa character of politeness and slow as opposed to aggressiveness, why should they bother with competition while they are all brothers, This is the biggest mistake ever that will require effort, resources and time to succumb.
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Most graduates expect jobs from the government and believe them to be more stable and respectable than working in the private sector, the only reason for that is government personnel have access to loans while others have not. The Majority of these freshers are poorly prepared to compete in international markets within or outside of the country.
What is the problem here, is it educational institutions’ failure to train their students to be fit for international competition or is it just a lack of confidence that kills our graduates, if the assumption is lack of confidence, then what are the lecturers’ duties, out of giving them notes, assignments and setting exams are they not even bother to rise esteem of their students?.
Education is observed and evaluated simply by behavior but taking that is ignoring the fact that even uneducated behave fundamentally well. As expected officers in government, or private sector University students must be eyes opened to catch every single magic show around them and exploit observable chance to the maximum.
Who will employ a fresher who is first not connected to the local and world major events, not informed enough on how certain things of his/her expertise work and lastly not have eligible referees, oh my soul!
English is not the country’s priority but your incompetence in it is a graduate problem and failure not of the government, it does not matter that you can write but not speak it or your grammar is a hugger-mugger.
The only element of competitiveness that must be possessed is language and must be English, French, Arabic or Chinese since they have promising honey and milk, sorry for disappointment but Swahili markets are overcrowded enough and ministries are responsible for making it work handled by elders who fall short of creativity and innovative schemes, and since languages matter they took their children and grandchildren to English medium schools or international schools, my poor soul! Free education prepared you to suffer.
Competence comes with repetition and urges to try putting some innovative changes from the traditional way of doing it, there is no way a University of Dar Es Salaam student to be competent just by graduating from that institution, universities are very competitive in terms of practical training, some universities are very poor in research but are the best in offering expertise professional services and therefore they have stressed of imparting that to their graduates to show greater degree of Competence at work, poor me! a theories student waiting for three months training at work and yet complaining of unfair market.
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Freshers provide the market with cheap labour that both profits and non-profit organisations enjoy, the only way for the market to grow is by ensuring the staff are enough and competitive against other organizational staff. Private sectors should know that they can exploit graduates to the maximum just by paying them lower or not paying at all.
Graduates are desperate and incapable of negotiating for salary or other enumerations, by exploiting them they also benefit from it ‘ for every action there is equal but opposite reactions’. Freshers need experience that universities did not provide them with or practical skills that are required in the work field, so giving them internships or volunteering is preparing them to be suitable for jobs.
Creating employment opportunities is expensive, it requires time, resources and a fresh mind. Colonial graduates have no idea of how it felt like, bad enough, offices have tribes and kin names, corruption is baptised as connection and connection is the other name for access to information, to be informed about the job you need to have people in that office already or a superior one.
Children’s posts are prepared by their parent’s way before they have graduated and ‘hohe hahe’ graduates wait at the table to be prepared by the state, whose state? State of tyranny! Poor meritocracy, that believes the Ajira portal can not be compromised.
Establishing agencies such as TAESA and likes is not the solution to unemployment, unemployment needs a panacea that our institutions have failed to provide. Entrepreneurship that substitutes for the solution of unemployment is promoted without capital, or a conducive climate for it to freely operate, at least Nigerians found their way to Europe and America after their government increased salaries to incumbents and misery to citizens, my poor Swahili in my colonial master Germany what useful do you have in case she open her market for you as reparation, oops! Maybe it will come with specialities.
As a graduate to be, 18th July will be like my freedom day, a day that I will be untied from a long course of learning and relearning, unlearning and learning finally I feel like I’m breathing and the dawn is there. As other ‘hohe hahe’ graduates I expect nothing but to be aggressive similar to Gen Z, with only one goal and that is, the job for food and the rest God will provide. My poor degree is ready for oppression and exploitation.
