The Inter-University Council for East Africa (IUCEA), in collaboration with the East African Business Council (EABC), will introduce a programme for providing skills to university students that suit their job demands in the East African Community states.
Addressing journalists in Dar es Salaam on the second day of the Academia – Private Sector Partnership Forum and Exhibition 2013 which began on Wednesday and ends on Friday in Nairobi, Kenya, IUCEA Executive Secretary, Prof Mayunga Nkunya, said the aim was to develop skills for youths on their innovations so as to enable them employ themselves and be employed by the private sector after their graduation.
He said the other objective of the forum was to provide a convergence platform for academia and the private sector through engagement with the public sector for discussing and strategizing on effective mechanisms for promoting academia and private sector partnership in order to sustain the bloc’s socio-economic development and regional integration.
“A graduate once has finished studies might have already been attached to a particular sector for employment. That is an arrangement we want to do to save manpower and avert losing it,” the don underscored. According to Prof Nkunya, the current strategies focus on personal capability and not certificates and pass marks, saying that the aim was to provide opportunities to all.
“We want to avoid losing professionals and instead we target to enable each one of them because it is our belief that everyone has their own ability for something. The programme plans to upgrade them from one level to another,” he stressed.
However, he noted that the qualification framework for all East African Community member states, which will be valid effective 2014, will benefit many youths. “Rwanda has this programme which has proved viable as no one fails to go to university to pursue studies, and Tanzania will start soon.
If we stick with our examination system we will never go far economically,” he cautioned. The EABC Executive Director, Mr Andrew Kaggwa, said that, “We aim to provide employment opportunities to our people and the private sector, with universities producing products which are fit in the production sector.”
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