Universities are working with private organisations to develop curriculum as they seek to make students better prepared for the evolving job market.
Africa Development Centre, an arm of the American tech giant Microsoft, will work with Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) to review the latter’s Computer Science degree programme and make it more relevant to industry needs.
The curriculum review programme will be extended to other Kenyan universities that offer tech-courses.
The initiative also aims to address skill gaps in software engineering students during technical interviews.
JKUAT Deputy VC (Academic Affairs), Robert Kinyua, said the programme seeks to make scholars more marketable as demand for tech-based services rises.
Though technology firms are increasingly on the lookout for talent, many are unable to hire directly from universities because fresh graduates are mostly armed with theoretical knowledge instead of the much-needed application skills in software engineering.
“Students leaving university need to have specialised skills for the job market. If, for example, one graduates with a bachelor’s in IT or Computer Science, we want him or her to have skills like data analytics, IoT or artificial intelligence. This can only be achieved if private companies play a part in the certification,” Prof Kinyua told Higher Education.
He added that because every company conducts business in a specific way, the new approach would boost the skillsets of scholars and ensure that the skills students obtain meet actual requirements of partner companies.
The programme will thus save on time and costs that would have been incurred by the private firms in retraining the new graduates.
“In networking, for instance, Microsoft is not likely to use software that has been created by Huawei,” Prof Kinyua said.
“In the classroom, however, the training students receive is generalised and uniform. If we partner with Microsoft and get students to learn using its systems, they are readily absorbed by the company on leaving school. The students already possess what the company needs.”
He added that Huawei provides a lot of equipment to telecommunication companies like Safaricom, Airtel and Telkom.
“When you go to Safaricom for networking and have Huawei certification, you will be more marketable than one who is not certified by Huawei,” he said.
Microsoft said working with JKUAT to review the institution’s tech syllabus would enable students pursuing STEM-related courses access updated resources, courses and assessments that will help them gain hands-on tech skills which will be useful during their career.
Prof Kinyua said JKUAT has initiated other partnerships with private firms in form of bootcamps, exchange programmes, hackathons and incubation to prepare students pursuing courses besides technology for the changing job market.
But JKUAT is not the only institution of higher learning to increase partnerships with private firms.
Recently, Kenyatta University announced a partnership with Kodris Africa to offer short courses on coding and computational thinking, a programme already approved by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD).
The Technical University of Mombasa announced a working relationship with Korean electric carmaker CEVO Mobility and Gyeonggi University of Science and Technology.
The partnership will entail student and staff exchange programmes aimed at sharing ideas in an effort to boost Kenya’s vehicle assembling capacity.
Just recently, Google Kenya and the Ministry of Education partnered on an Android Developer Skills masterplan that would target 10,000 students in 50 Technical, Vocational, and Educational institutions.
These joint programmes have enabled students to fine-tune their skills by building real-world solutions under the supervision of industry professionals.
Prof Kinyua, however, said implementing such activities is expensive.
He added that the reduction in public university funding by the government could make delivery of quality education difficult, even as the universities seek alternative ways of generating income.
“Higher education institutions have been victims of freezes or cuts in state funding, a factor that has seen them struggle to provide quality service,” he said.
“Parents are struggling to meet the cost of education passed down to them due to the tough economic conditions.”
