Universities face pressure over career guidance offices

As Kenya battles a youth unemployment and under-employment crisis, the Ministry of Education has repeated a directive for universities and all tertiary institutions to set up career offices to guide young people on career choices and job market demands.

The latest directive, first made last year, comes two weeks after the country’s Cabinet Secretary for Education, Science and Technology Professor George Magoha launched a career guidance book largely aimed at university students. According to the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service, which authored the book, it will guide prospective and continuing students and parents on career opportunities and how to progress towards those careers.

While some campuses such as Kenyatta University have already established a centre of career development and mentoring for continuing and potential students and alumni, many universities are yet to establish career guidance offices, according to local media reports.

Guidebook

During the launch of the guidebook, University of Nairobi Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Mbithi said that the office will help close the skills gap in the job market and enable universities to work more closely with industry.

The office of career services is designed to assist students in identifying potential careers, developing educational plans and providing students with accurate information about academic progression and degree requirements, thus assisting students with proper planning of their degree and career progress.

The ministry’s Principal Secretary of Education Professor Collette Suda said existing career service offices should be strengthened to enable them to address the needs of students and guide them on how to select jobs and create opportunities for self-employment.

A more widely available career guidance service seems to be needed. When Dick Alielo received the results of his Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education examinations, he opted to enrol for a degree in education simply because, in the absence of any formal career counselling, it was the only degree programme offering a career path – teaching – that he could understand.

“In haste, I opted for a degree in education as this was the only course with an end point I knew,” Alielo told University World News. “I knew that I would become a teacher, simply walk into a classroom and educate kids.”

The rural experience

Hailing from rural western Kenya, Alielo wanted to pursue environmental science but had little access to career and university course information and no access to the internet. He did not feel confident about pursuing a course whose industry expectations he did not understand.

“I really needed an expert to guide me and get knowledge on some of the courses I could pursue but it was not easy,” said Alielo.

Alielo said many of his schoolmates were equally confused about university course choices. The little they gathered was from the few university students in their village who had pieces of information limited to the courses they were pursuing. Some of them were not happy with the choices they had made and had no clear picture of what they were pursuing, he said.

Alielo was admitted to Moi University to pursue education and is now teaching at a high school. He hails the government's move towards more emphasis on career guidance, saying such offices should be extended to high schools too, including those in rural areas such as his own.

The urban experience

Unlike Alielo, Yvonne Ogada who is set to join Strathmore University to pursue a business management course, received guidance when university lecturers regularly visited her high school in Kisumu city to offer career guidance services. She said she is “confident” that what she has chosen to study will meet her life and career goals because she received “sufficient information and exposure”.

The ministry said it aims to have the career services offices at universities extended to secondary schools and private tertiary institutions, and future institutions of higher learning will be required to set up career services offices before approval and registration.

Grace Gacara, director of the Kenya Education Management Institute, which is the site of training for a second cohort of staff destined for career services offices, said a monitoring and evaluation mechanism will be established to ensure that universities have working career offices.