Kenyan Students Aim for Good Jobs After Graduation

Hundreds of Kenyan students seek university placement in overseas institutions each year.

They do so for various reasons. With the high cut-off points required for admission to local public universities, many qualified students find themselves locked out.

For some, local private universities may not have much appeal. Other times, the courses they wish to pursue may not be on offer. Yet, for others, the drama at public universities is not something they wish to live through.

There is also the belief that foreign institutions are better equipped with modern teaching equipment, resources and facilities.

Whatever their reasons for looking outwards, the students have one goal: to get good jobs when they graduate.

While some choose to remain in their host countries after completion of studies, a significant number return home. They come with enough zeal and confidence that they will immediately join the workforce and begin building the nation. And aren’t many optimistic!

But do they find it easy surviving in the local job market, especially given local perceptions and prejudices for and against foreign degrees? Much talk on foreign academic credentials abounds.

Some people insist that those with foreign degrees are more marketable than their local counterparts. For others, a foreign degree is a little like a disease. But what is it actually like for these graduates?

After returning to Kenya with a degree in Business Information Systems from the US in February 2004, Rose Kyaterekera was eager to start applying her knowledge and skills in a workplace.

With the training and working experience she had accumulated in her six years in the US, she knew she would land a job in no time.

"When I arrived, I sent out numerous job applications. But the feedback I got was not favourable," she says. Many companies did not send any replies; not even regrets. A research into her career field further disappointed her.

"I found that most of the (computer) programming languages and database applications being used here were quite outdated. In the US, I was used to more advanced applications. What was even more frustrating was that each company favoured specific application (software), and they expected you to know it extensively."