Tanzania to trace graduates performance in the job market

Dar es Salaam. The government has formed a committee of experts to conduct tracer studies of vocational training graduates to determine their quality, skills and abilities according to market needs.
This action follows constant complaints of employers about the limited ability of the graduates from various levels of education, including universities and vocational colleges, to perform as most of the latter lack the knowledge and skills to deliver.
Tracer studies are surveys mostly used by higher education institutions to provide a sound basis for intentional improvement of both content (curricula) and delivery of their educational services such as teaching and learning, yet, according to experts, has been a rare priority in local institutions. Specialists have been noting that the question whether or not colleges impart the youth with necessary skills for the labour market, lied on whether the institutions carried out effective tracer studies. They believe that in order to find out what the graduates were doing in as far as the education and training they received from their alma mater, colleges needed to embrace the alumni surveys to help in reducing the labour market gap.
Thus, the formation of a committee of experts to carry out monitoring work at the vocational level, where  the  graduates need to have hands-on skills. This is a big step in improving curricula and training in the country.
The minister for Education, Science and Technology, Prof Adolf Mkenda, on Tuesday formed a committee led by Dr Hamisi Mwinyimvua from the University of Dar es Salaam and other members including Prof Deogratius Mushi (UDSM), Dr John Chegere (UDSM), Dr Claude Maeda from Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and Dr Ibrahim Kadigi (SUA) for that purpose.
According to Prof Mkenda, at the moment, the biggest push was on skills issues, so the information that will be derived from the market survey will have a great contribution in ensuring that the education provided enables graduates to have the skills to be employed or self-employ.
“We are monitoring so that when we go through the Vocational Training curriculum, we will know how we are going to improve it because we will be aware of the needs of the market as we want these graduates to be sought after by employers,” he said shortly after launching the committee.
Some of the areas they will look at in the research are whether the graduates are employed, how they use their expertise at their work stations, the challenges and whether the skills they have acquired are compatible with the job market.

An educational consultant based in Dar es Salaam, Dr Thomas Jabir, said the move should not end only at technical colleges, but should continue to the universities as most of the latter did not do that monitoring.

“The government should take the responsibility of creating these committees to also monitor university graduates as most of their institutions do not monitor their graduates to improve curricula and training,” he advised.