University Graduates’ Employability Skills Preparedness in Kenyan Economic Sectors

Abstract

The fast expansion of Kenyan universities has only focused on raising student numbers rather than improving the quality of education and research. These challenges are raising doubts on the level of their preparedness in their employ ability skills. This study investigated how graduates’ quality compared amongst various universities in Kenya, how university graduates from different sectors in Kenya compare in terms of employability skills, and the link between graduate quality and employ ability skills. Literature review was done on quality of education globally, in Africa, regionally and locally, while the conceptual framework on quality of graduates and work preparedness was developed to guide the study. The study used descriptive and exploratory designs to conduct qualitative analysis. The target population was 420 graduate employees and 46 supervisors/managers of the COYA 2013 companies who were given a 5 Likert Scale questionnaire ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). A survey of 5 public and 5 private universities was done to interrogate the university side of the research to get an all-inclusive perspective. Characteristics of the study variables were analyzed using SPSS and the relationship between variables was tested using Pearson’s correlation analysis. The study results showed that service and education (M = 4.5), finance (4.2), Agriculture (4.0), manufacturing (3.9), ICT (3.5), Regulatory (3.5), Communication (3.1), Hotel (3.0), insurance (2.9) and transport (2.0). Service, education and finance required more employability skills than other sectors. There was a positive link (P = 0.000) between present job competence, confidence, involvement and employability skills of graduates. The study recommends that universities should involve the industry in developing curricula to satisfy the university, graduates and labour market requirements.