We Kenyans are overly fascinated with education. And by education, i mean having a string of diplomas and degree in this and that. And it is with a good reason. We have case studies of from rags to riches simply because someone got a degree here and a diploma there and look how far they have come.
Take a case of Mutula kilonzo, Alfred Mutua, Martha Karua, Wangari Mathai and the list goes on. Were not it for them getting a higher education i doubt they’d be where they are now.
That was then. The reality now is very very different. whereas in the eighties you could count the number of law graduates, Bcom and the likes the situation now borders on saturation. Almost all courses, save, for medicine can be said to be saturated. All of us want to ‘take’ the marketable courses paying little attention to talent or even interest and you wonder why the unemployment rate is so high in Kenya.
And here is the surprise for a Monday morning. Do you know that too much education, knowledge and experience in your CV could be the reason you cannot get a job?
Whereas moderate education and experience are considered critical in employment, Kenyans employers and HR managers are shying away from applicants holding strings of diplomas and degrees. sincerely, what use is having an MBA when you don’t even have a solid three years working experience?
If you have previously been dismissed as ‘over-qualified by several potential employers, you certainly belong to this category of “unemployable”.
When employers genuinely deny potential employees jobs on the basis of over-qualification, it means the job seeker is skilled and educated beyond what is necessary to perform the job. And this is what Kenya is slowly becoming. A country full of graduates who only posses theoretical know-how.
In my own thinking, companies are more interested with the job applicant’s ability to learn on the job than extremely deep knowledge of the job in question. And certainly not the theory knowledge.
Next time you want to register for that extra diploma or MBA think critically. You’re better off getting experience first than rushing back to class.
No comments:
Post a Comment