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| Overview Tanzanian Employment Sector |
As a trainee manager of the innovation space i interact with different universities and colleges students throughout Dar es Salaam and Tanzania in general. From my experience there are lot of challenges facing these students. Most of these challenges make them weak to survive in the tough job competition and in the corporate world because they are not prepared to handle the the challenges.
“ Why the big private companies hire people from abroad ?” that is the question i receive most of the time when discussing with graduates about the Tanzanian education system. Sometimes the issue is not the education system but the students themselves, the few mistakes that students should avoid includes;
Writing a CV instead of preparing it, most of the graduate fail to understand CV is not something you prepare over the night, CV is something you build throughout your educational career as a student. Most of the students who take part in college campaigns, leadership programme and volunteering activities are so likely to be hired compared to those who not. These activities help them for capacity building and hand on working skills that help them to survive in the job market.
Focusing on GPA, instead of building working skills most of our local graduates compete on who scores the better GPA. It is inevitable that someone has to score good GPA but there is something that is more important than GPA that most of the company prefer, which is working skills. Most of the companies don’t have time to invest in teaching freshers on how to work and be efficient member of the organization, instead they will hire someone who have the working skills ready with him. Someone who can work in team and understand a bit of their operations.
Locked within the walls of syllabus, the syllabus is just the guide but not the rules. A smart student will always try to understand what is happening outside the scope of the syllabus. The student can not allow the syllabus to control is learning abilities. In the fast changing technology world you can’t allow yourself to be confined within the walls of your rigid syllabus and hoping you can compete with student from abroad whose syllabus is always changing with the rate of changing in technology.
Project and research, how are you going to become competent if the only time you do project or research on something is when you are instructed to do so by your lecturer or supervisor. If you can’t even spend some time trying to understand the problems facing your local communities and thinking for solutions, how can you be benefited with your knowledge. Research and projects is what makes students competent that is why world class colleges invest a lot of time in making sure students focus on projects and research.
Failing to practice from the very beginning, most of the students don’t understand practicing is the only way to make things perfect. How do you expect to become a leader if you have never done a single public speaking session ? These skills are built with time, many mistakes will be made in the beginning but as you moving you become more expert and more confidence is built in you. I will invest my money on a student who spend a lot of time to do different extracurricular activities that fit his or future career than who does not.
Internet is there for entertainment only, 50 percent of IT tips and tricks i use today in my daily office activities i learnt them from YouTube. Over 80 percent of unresolved IT tasks that i got the solution is coming from the web. Internet is the only weapon someone can use to attain the same knowledge and level of challenges that students from abroad is receiving but most of Tanzanian students will use internet to do unnecessary staffs. The site like coursera or edx they are great sources of high end knowledge and latest courses offered in the most reputed universities and colleges in the world, but very few of the Tanzanian students uses them.
Choosing role models and mentors, if until right now you don’t know what you want to be then you are in big trouble. Finding proper role models and mentors in our communities is not a simple task but still you have every reason to have one. Someone whom you can sit down and discuss with him about your career and your plans and expect good and professional advice from him. Most of the students ended hating their career options since they can’t even figure out what can they do after they graduate.
Failing to understand what they want, What you are doing right now is really what you want? We don’t expect you to perform hundred percent or offer your maximum efficiency level to something you don’t like. Don’t choose a course because everyone is taking it, take a course since you enjoy doing it. In the end it will be very easy for you to committed and dedicated to the course since its something you like to do.
Value of time, It happens everywhere in the world everyone want to enjoy his/her college days, its not a problem, but remember we have different education systems and their education system favors them to do different kind of stuffs while they can still perform well in the class. For Tanzanian students time is very valuable and if you can’t manage it well. You will ended up losing everything.Its better you spend your free time learning new ideas, getting involved in project and do sideways courses to build your CV.
Choosing the right team, They say “show me your friends and i will tell you who you are”. Most of the time we form friends in colleges because we use to know each other from the past either high school mates, neighbours at home or your fathers are friends. At the college level you really need to work out your methods of finding friends. Find friends who can build your skills, your confidence, motivate you and challenge you towards success. Choose friends who will help you to see opportunities as they come and guide you throughout positive behaviour skills.
Tech360 Correspondent