What school-leavers and employers say about HE in Africa

About 90% of secondary school-leavers in Sub-Saharan Africa aspire to pursue higher education and, in cases where students in the region are seen to be more reluctant to attend university, this could be attributed to financial constraints and their perceived concerns about the quality of education.

Employers who participated in the survey reported that they are concerned about the leadership skills of the next generation of employees as well as the brain drain.

This was one of the findings of a comprehensive survey across nine countries, which yielded 7,880 responses, examining how 3,953 school-leaver participants – 49% female, 50% male (1% unspecified gender) and mainly in the 15- to 22-year age bracket – reimagined university education and considered what their future career paths could be.

A further 3,927 responses were collected from employers in businesses ranging from manufacturing and marketing to small and medium enterprises. The countries included were Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

The survey, The ALU 2025 Africa Workforce Readiness Survey Report, was conducted between March and June in 2024 by researchers at the African Leadership University (ALU) in Kigali, Rwanda.

According to Veda Sunassee, ALU’s chief executive officer, researchers collected data using online surveys, telephone interviews and in-person data-gathering methods.

“This gave us an insight into how young people in Africa see their future education prospects and even how employers view the future of work on the continent,” said Sunassee when launching the survey report at a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier in February.

Looking into the future

Regarding country specifics, 99% of student respondents in South Africa and Ghana said they had plans to pursue higher education in the future, compared to 97% in Nigeria, 96% in Uganda, and 92% in Kenya. However, only 79% of students from Côte d’Ivoire told researchers that they had aspirations for higher education, and fewer had such plans in Ethiopia (74%), Rwanda (73%), and Zimbabwe (72%).

However, while aspiring to enter higher education was significant for most students in Sub-Saharan Africa, several intersecting and cross-cutting issues indicated that students want university education to have some specific intrinsic values beyond merely having a direct appeal to knowledge and the desire to learn.

In this regard, when students were asked why they wanted to pursue higher education in the future, most answers revolved around gaining skills and work experience. In effect, when deciding on a college or a university to apply to, 52% of student respondents said their main priority was to get work experience.

Skills and work experience

According to the report, the issue of universities and colleges having the capacity to provide skills and work experience elicited the most positive responses from Côte d’Ivoire (82%), Uganda (68%), and Nigeria (65%).

Along with gaining skill sets, students in Sub-Saharan Africa want to use their skills to pursue their “passions” or contribute to their countries’ development. The two indicators each attracted 26% of the respondents, but only 10% were concerned with studying a particular topic of interest in-depth.

Within the country chart, 45% of respondents from Côte d’Ivoire stated that they would like to pursue their passion, compared to 34% of their peers from both Nigeria and Ghana, and 32% in Uganda.

In addition, 29% of Kenya’s respondents wanted to pursue their passion in higher education compared to 23% in Zimbabwe, 15% in Rwanda, 14% in Ethiopia, and only 5% in South Africa.

What do they want to study?

The lower enrolment in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM disciplines) compared to social sciences and humanities was confirmed, as only 27% of the surveyed students, on average, in the nine countries said they would like to pursue careers in engineering, technology and software development.

Another 14% stated they were interested in banking and financial services, 7% in marketing and communications, and 4% each in education, agriculture and livestock farming. However, 11% stated they were interested in government or public service careers, another 11% were interested in healthcare and social affairs, and 3% rooted for tourism.

When asked how they felt about working for organisations that aim to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges, such as climate change, gender equality and food insecurity, 64% of students said that they agree, with 37% stating that they strongly agree. Only 8% strongly disagreed, showing that most African youths with tertiary education are interested in solving global problems.

The brain drain

Although 63% of the students were optimistic about the future of the African economy, the report highlighted that under 50% of all surveyed students planned on staying and working on the continent after completing their university studies.

On average, only 44% of students would like to stay and work in Africa after completing their studies, while 35% aspire to work outside the continent.

Country responses indicated that Ghana, at 57%, and Nigeria, at 51%, had the highest number of tertiary-educated youth aspiring to migrate to high-income countries. In comparison, both Ethiopia and South Africa, at 63%, had the highest number of graduates who aspire to work in Africa.

In this regard, ALU’s findings appear to align with last year’s African Union-OECD Africa’s Development Dynamics, report that noted that, in 2020, 17% of tertiary-educated individuals born in Africa resided in high-income countries in Western Europe, Canada and the United States (US).

The survey revealed that, given the chances, many students from Sub-Saharan Africa would like to study abroad, and the most-favoured destinations were the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Europe.

According to the report, students from Ghana (60%) and Nigeria (45%) are the most likely to want to study abroad, followed by Kenya (44%). However, their counterparts from Ethiopia (82%), Zimbabwe (82%), and Uganda (71%) are most likely to stay in Africa for higher education.

Artificial intelligence

When asked whether artificial intelligence (AI) would be an opportunity for their career goals, 51% of the students strongly agreed, while about a quarter saw no role of AI in their future career prospects.

Even then, the students were sharply divided on whether AI was likely to create setbacks in their future job prospects, as 37% believed that AI would impact negatively on their future job prospects, and 38% did not think AI would damage their potential career goals.

Nonetheless, various responses emerged when researchers asked students about what impact AI will generally have on jobs in the future. In this case, 26% of the students felt that AI would lead to fewer job opportunities, while 20% thought workers would have to re-skill many times in their careers.

Still, there were worries that AI, in future, will widen the wage gap, a position held by 11% of the surveyed students across the nine countries. But, on the positive side, 18% felt AI would improve job satisfaction, 15% thought AI would create more employment opportunities and 10% believed AI would help older workers seek new skills and eventually prolong their careers.

What employers want

The report explored what employers across Africa want from graduates entering the workforce and noted that, on average, 63% of employers would like higher education institutions to focus more on developing leadership skills, which are currently lacking among most graduates in the job market.

According to Sunassee, the issue is that, although employers see potential in Africa’s future graduates, many still have reservations about their leadership skills. “About 36% of surveyed employers are not convinced that the next generation of graduates can help their businesses grow,” said Sunassee.

In addition to providing leadership skills to graduates, employers believe the best way higher education institutions could better prepare graduates is also to focus on technical skills and to partner with employers.

To date, 32% of employers surveyed are unconvinced that higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa prepares graduates well for the job market.

According to the report, Kenyan and Ghanaian employers are eager for tertiary institutions to focus on developing leadership skills such as adaptability, teamwork, problem-solving and communication, with 89% and 71% of employers identifying these as target areas.

However, 81% of South African employers responded that offering students opportunities to work with businesses through case studies, internships and real-world projects was another key to success in the graduate job market.

“Keeping up with trends, such as the growing need for technological skills and integrating them into the curriculum can ensure graduates meet employer demands,” stated the report.

Responding to the primary specific skills that they need, 36% of employers said they were interested in communication skills, innovation and creativity (29%), analytical skills (27%), flexibility and adaptability (24%), entrepreneurial skills (20%), and problem-solving (19%).

But, on a lesser scale, employers cited teamwork (16%), digital skills (16%), a leadership mindset (12%), self-management (11%), foreign language (10%), resilience (4%), and numeracy (3%).

Commenting on the flight of talent as a significant issue for the continent’s future, almost two-thirds of surveyed employers noted that brain drain was emerging as a primary challenge to socio-economic progress.

The problem is that few African students who study abroad return to the continent, according to the Africa’s Development Dynamics report. For instance, just about half of students surveyed in Kenya said they plan on staying in Africa after completing their education.

What universities can do

In its call to action, the ALU report urges African higher education to prioritise soft skills and technical abilities, self-directed learning, collaborative projects, and interdisciplinary approaches across all academic programmes to enhance student preparedness for diverse job markets.

Universities should also expand academic offerings and career-focused experiences in engineering, banking, technology and healthcare, which are fast-growing and increasingly popular among students.

“Digital competencies such as coding and various aspects of AI should also be infused across the curriculum to ensure graduates are ready for the future job landscape,” stated the report.

However, amid efforts to align the curriculum with work-based learning opportunities geared toward students’ career aspirations, the researchers have advised employers and tertiary institutions to open partnerships to offer scholarships, internships, apprenticeships and real-world projects.

The ALU’s survey is refreshing as it gives insights into how potential higher education students and new graduates reimagine their hopes, dreams and fears about their future career prospects at home or abroad.