Why Hiring Fresh Graduates Is Becoming A Costly Burden According To Employers

By Michelle Wanjiku
Over the last few years, the number of graduates has gone up considerably. However, there has been talk of the poor quality of graduates joining the job market every year leading to the popularity of the phrase half-baked graduates.
According to a survey conducted by The Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE) on members last December, up to 70 per cent of entry-level recruits need a refresher course to understand and deliver at the workplace.
“The university training focuses more on academic qualifications as opposed to imparting specific skills and competencies on the learners,” FKE Executive Director Jacqueline Mugo said.
“This not only increases the costs of doing business, but also reduces productivity of the industries as new workers take long to become productive.”
Employers are feeling the pinch because they spend a lot of money retraining the graduates so that they can gain the appropriate skills. This then leads to an increase in the cost of doing business for most organizations.
A few years ago, most technical and training colleges were turned into constituent colleges in a bid to satisfy the need for more universities in the country. This ended up reducing the number of people with mid-level technical skills such as electricians, mechanics among others.
This led to the creation of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) department in the Education ministry. TVET was tasked with coming up with policy that will support the growth of technicians in order to support the country’s industrialization vision.
It was also set up in June 2014 to license, register, and accredit the institutions as well as programs and trainers.
READ ALSO >>> 7 Lessons I’ve Learnt About The Kenyan Job Market
“We possibly made a mistake in changing our polytechnics to technical universities. I believe, hopefully if possible, we can reverse that and get back to technical training institutions where they (future job seekers) are taught hands-on technical skill sets,” Kenya Association of Manufacturers vice chairperson Sachen Gudka said in an interview last month.
This seems to be working as enrolment in TVET institutions nearly doubled to 275,139 in 2017 from 148,009 in 2013.
According to Ms. Mugo, FKE Executive Director, over 90 percent of employers who participated in the survey last year said that because of the increase in graduates, people are applying for jobs they are over qualified for.
For example, you find graduates applying for jobs like data entry which mostly never require a university education. The result is that most fresh graduates are working in positions they have no passion for which makes them less productive.
SEE ALSO >>>  3 Things You Need to Know About Job Searching in Today’s Job Market
This is because of the need for a source of income to manage in the tough economic times as well as the competitiveness of the job market.
In Conclusion,
More and more employers are looking to hire people depending on the skills they possess as opposed to how they performed in school. It is therefore, important for you as a fresh graduate to ensure you gain this necessary experience so that you will have the upper hand when applying for positions.
Who is to blame for the poor quality of graduates in the job market?
Source: Nation Media
Michelle is a Communication Officer/Digital Marketer at Career Point Kenya. Email: michelle@www.careerpointkenya.co.ke