Grappling with graduate unemployment

Following her graduation from the University of Rwanda in 2014 with a degree focused on business and administration, 29-year-old Christine Mulisa hoped to land a job in her field within a few months.

“I was among the best performers [in my programme] and was positive that I could get a job quickly. I started applying straight away and sat for over 50 written tests, but I am still searching,” she told University World News recently.

“Sometimes I passed the written tests, but I was often among hundreds of applicants all hoping to secure just one position,” she said.

Mulisa’s story is similar to that of other graduates – even those with more practical training.

Prudence Habimana graduated from a polytechnic in 2015 with a diploma in electronic engineering.

“I pursued TVET studies because I believed it would make it easier to get a job or create one,” he said.

While he sometimes gets casual work, he has not been formally employed since graduation.

Unemployment

Mulisa and Habimana are among thousands of unemployed graduates from both universities and polytechnics, although figures suggest that university graduates are slightly more likely to be employed.

A Ministry of Education tracer survey report released early in May put the employment rate for graduates of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) programmes at 50% while the general employment rate for university graduates (mainstream) was 63.4%.

According to the same report, the underemployment figure for TVET graduates was 39.5%, while for higher learning institutions it was reported to be 18.5%.

The survey also revealed that graduates from both TVET institutions and universities lack additional skills and professional experience. Entrepreneurial and business skills were also limited.

Government efforts

The findings are likely to be seen as a blow to government efforts to create 200,000 off-farm jobs annually.

The survey was carried out last year between June and December and covered a sample of graduates who had completed TVET education, including polytechnics, between 2015 and 2016, and those who had graduated from university between 2014 and 2015.

It was designed to capture critical labour market information on graduates of higher learning institutions and TVET institutions and assess trends in employment and employer satisfaction against previous levels.

It also aimed to assess the impact of training programmes in TVET institutions, polytechnics and higher education with respect to employment and establish the time gap between graduation and employment.

The latest survey found that employer satisfaction rate was 78.2% and 74.6% for graduates from higher learning institutions and TVETs respectively.

Pascal Gatabazi, an engineer who is also the director general of the Workforce Development Authority, stressed the need to empower students with hands-on skills to prepare them for self-employment.

“The survey reveals a huge gap. First, there is a big number of people who are unemployed. Secondly, there is a gap in how we work with mainly private sector employers who could help students to acquire hands-on skills,” he said.

Labour market match

“Institutions that employ graduates should work together with government and academic institutions so that the gaps can be filled to match the labour market.

“Our labour market is still small … it means that there is a need to encourage innovation and creativity. It remains our responsibility to help graduates to be innovative and create jobs and employ others as our private sector keeps growing,” he said.

He said that the government was working hard to ensure that jobs continue to be created, but it was also important to “keep mobilising resources to increase materials and consumables in TVET schools,” he said.

Isaac Munyakazi, state minister for primary and secondary education, said the survey was long overdue and would help the government to fast-track outcomes of education and linkages with employment.

Employers who spoke to University World News said while the labour market needs graduates, especially those from TVET schools, they stressed that fresh graduates often lack basic skills to join the market upon completion.

“It is apparent that sometimes graduates do not have enough practice while at their respective schools because those we receive are not fit for the work and it requires us to train them first,” said a garage owner based in Kigali.

According to Theoneste Ntagengerwa, Private Sector Federation (PSF) spokesperson, the private sector is not sufficiently liberalised to accommodate the larger number of graduates from both TVETs and universities.

Investment

“The market is not able to accommodate all graduates, and one of the responses to this is to work with the government to ease investment so that the number of companies can increase and more jobs can be created,” he said.

He agreed that skills and hands-on skills should be imparted so that graduates can create own jobs upon completion.

“As PSF we encourage employers to offer jobs to graduates but it is not just offering a job, you give what you have,” he said.

He also stressed the need to allow graduates a longer period of internship or industrial attachment for them to acquire skills before joining the labour market.

“Sometimes interns have a short period and employers or mentors who should be helping them are too busy and cannot do so given the limited period. Sometimes those mentors are also not trained to help them,” he said.