University graduates realise the value of vocational skills

Michael Okiti shows intense concentration as he bends on one knee and looks disapprovingly at the curved metal in front of him. He has been fabricating the shape for hours now, but it is not yet perfect.

To the average person, the young man in blue overalls could pass as just another “failure”, a common reference to people pursuing vocational skills in Uganda. They are sometimes labelled “academic dwarfs” because the common thinking is they could not make the grade in formal classes to secure a white-collar job.

But not Okiti.

In fact, he is an engineering graduate of Mbarara University of Science and Technology.

“I am learning to weld and to fabricate metal because it is the area I am interested in,” said Okiti. “I studied bits of the skill while pursuing my engineering degree, but not in detail.”

Okiti has been at the Lugogo Vocational Training Institute in Kampala for a month now. He has two more months to hone his skills.

He is not the only one.

George Mwesigye Shillingi, principal at the training institute, said the school registers more university graduates interested in different competencies every year.

“Some have social science backgrounds or they are transport officers and want to learn motor vehicle mechanics. Some are electrical engineers and are interested in industrial or domestic wiring or motor rewinding,” he said.

He said in 2018 the institute received eight engineers, three of whom were masters degree holders attached to the Ugandan automotive company Kiira Motors.

“They were specifically interested in metal fabrication. We designed a particular programme for them and by three months they were perfect,” Shillingi told University World News at his office.

Dr Michael Okumu, deputy director in charge of assessment and certification at the Directorate of Industrial Training in Kampala, said the assessment body had witnessed a “positive trend” in more Ugandans, including graduates, turning to vocational education.

Pursuing a passion

Amos Mugarura, a BSc graduate from Mbarara University of Science and Technology, said he is learning to make menswear because design has always been his passion.

“I was at Mbarara because my parents insisted I go to university. But I have always wanted to make clothes, different clothes for men and women, ever since I was little,” he said, sitting at his sewing machine with a pencil fixed behind his right ear at Nakawa Vocational Training Institute in Kampala.

Jacky Asiimwe, a BA Counselling graduate from Kyambogo University, said she is learning tourism and catering at the Nakawa Institute because the skills are “more lucrative”.

But others are also opting for vocational skills because they can’t find work after university. Uganda has one of the highest unemployment rates on the continent.

The Uganda Investment Authority indicates that only about 113,000 of the 400,000 graduates who enter the labour market annually are absorbed.

Regardless of the reason, graduates were turning to vocational skills said curriculum specialist for business, technical, vocational education and training (BTVET), Benard Akol Otemor. He said the trend was a “good thing” which complemented the country’s development plan.

Uganda launched a Skilling Uganda Initiative 2011-2020, specifically to boost vocational skills which were more relevant to the country’s needs. Since then thousands have learnt carpentry, brick laying and other skills.

According to Dr Wilfred Nahamya, deputy executive secretary at the Uganda Business and Technical Examination Board, candidates registering for technical and vocational assessments increased from 62,896 in 2016 to 86,342 in 2017 and to approximately 100,000 in 2018.

“The country is prioritising practical courses where the population can optimally contribute to development. We need people who can build roads, who can wire electricity, cook a good meal, people who can contribute something,” said Otemor.

A shift in mindset

“It is a shift in mindset which we have tried to create for years, that vocational skills are the future,” said Otemor. “But some parents want their children to be admitted for secondary school after primary education and thereafter university.

“They do not know it is no longer about the degree anymore. It is about what someone can do,” he said.

“This prioritising of vocational skills is what the developed European and American countries discovered earlier … We are saying we do not have jobs but jobs are everywhere in construction, agriculture, catering … it’s just that people don’t know how to access them,” said Otemor.

Nickson Kabuye, resident district commissioner for Kiboga district, said: “We have assumed that one has to search for a job after university.” But it should not be the case.

“We need to encourage graduates to have the courage to depart from the traditional way of doing things and to venture into these other skills,” he said. “The country already knows what it needs, practical and hands-on skills for its citizens.”

Industry-academia disconnect

John Chrysostom Muyingo, state minister for higher education, said many African countries still experience a disconnect between their institutions of higher learning and the skills industry wants.

He said the continent needs graduates who are flexible, not fixated with formal employment, and who will “selflessly serve community and contribute to positive transformation”.

“The education ministry and Uganda will continue to prioritise skills acquisition to create a pool of more relevant workforce,” he said in a telephone interview with University World News.

Professor Eli Katunguka, vice-chancellor of Kyambogo University in Kampala, said institutions of higher learning were actually supportive of the trend.

“What is the problem if I am a veterinary professor, and I’m still able to fix my car when it breaks down?” he said.

“For a long time vocational education has been branded as “for failures” … students who could not make it in class. This is changing the narrative,” said Katunguka.