The issue of unemployed university graduates in somali

Students’ encountered a great barrier in transition from coursework to putting in practice the skills they acquired. Past research indicate that approximately 70% of the population is below 30 years yet Somali ranks among countries in the world with the highest rate of unemployment as 67% of the youth are unemployed. Women lose out more, with unemployment rates at 74%, compared to men at 61%. 40% of youths are actively looking for work, while 21% are neither working nor in school. According to tallies of sampled institutions, many graduates held massive graduation ceremonies but are yet to be employed. The survey conducted indicated that 37% have spent one year searching for a job, 41% have spent two years, and 13% have spent three to four years while 9% have spent over five years but are yet to be employed.

Table 4 indicates that 93. 5% of the sampled students had acquired bachelor degree as their highest academic qualification. The government should therefore introduce incentive such as scholarships that will motivate people yearn for education thus gain more skills in their field of specialization. The 3. 2% represents one respondent who pursued his masters and graduated in 2017 though unemployed.

Based on analysis, their courses have flooded in the market hence few opportunities left for them to grasp whilst some courses are not in market hence no jobs available. The student also lacked the relevant skills required either because they never acquired the right skills in school or they are still studying. The ministry of higher education should therefore ensure assessment of courses at higher learning institutions, appraisal of the teaching standards, induction of internships to increase their experience levels and more career talks to the students enlightening them on areas of specialization. However, graduates should be well updated, aggressive and enterprising, thus creating more jobs, reducing the unemployment gap. Business Administration, Nursing, Development Studies, Engineering, Law, Nutrition, Medicine and Human Resource Management were some of the courses that released graduates who had been absorbed in the job market. Nevertheless, business administration registered the highest number of graduates employed in areas different from their areas of specialization. All other courses registered graduates who were employed in different areas of specialization other than Law, Agriculture, Statistics and Nursing. Some respondents who specialized in Human Resource management were employed as a finance assistant, nutritionists engaged in business while some accountants ended up being hotel managers. Sixteen respondents (53. 33%) indicated that they knew some of their colleagues who studied different courses but were unemployed while 14(46. 67%) had none in mind. The unemployed colleagues had undertaken bachelor’s degree in Economics, nutrition science, Accounting, Law or Marketing which demoralized those who had pursued the same courses. Thus, over 60% of the Somali youth have intentions to leave the country for better livelihood opportunities.

One percent increase in unemployment reduces the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of a country by two percent. It therefore increases the burden of debt in a country as there is no circulation of the money enhancing poverty thus resulting to economic instability. To conquer it, the government should come up with a remunerative way to absorb the some of the unemployed graduates and eradicate nepotism and tribalism as they negatively affected the employment. Consequently, the students will indulge in criminal activities such as theft, drugs and drugs trafficking activities etc. as a result of frustration. Holding unemployment constant, most graduates indicated that if given a second chance, they would pursue a course in Engineering, medicine or finance and accounting. Analysis indicates that some viewed the courses as marketable and had more job opportunities thus few chances of unemployment. Other marketable courses identified included Law, dentistry, agriculture, administration police, marketing and human resource management. Secondly, they regarded the jobs to be well paying while others indicated that they had an upper hand once they pursued the course.

Comparing the relationship between unemployment and the type of university, there existed a weak negative correlation, 66. 67 % unemployed being public university graduates. This indicated that type of university had no significant impact on unemployment level. Approximately 22. 6% respondents had found vacant job opportunities they could not fill. Those who identified vacant positions of networking officers were unable to apply as they could not communicate in English yet it was a vital requirement.

Some could not apply for Child Protection paralegal officers as they had no skills on report writing while those who identified the jobs of financial could not apply as they were not versatile with the accounting software. The last lot identified a job vacancy as project manager but could not fill as they lacked 10 years on experience in the field. Graduates were therefore not satisfied with the education they acquire from higher learning institutions. Some perceive that they have no qualified professionals while others recommend on establishment of more technical schools. ISTVs offered industrial internships to their students to enable them develop their skills and put in practice what they studied in their course work. As a result, some organizations preferred their graduates to other graduates from other institutions. Feedback from field indicated that ISTVs graduates performed better than others, were responsible and showed great satisfaction to the employers.