Focus: Under employment on the rise

Steven spent the first year after graduating from University working as a marketing officer for a media organization. Having majored in tourism at Uganda’s Makerere University, he hoped to get a job of his “status”. And this job he believed would be found in his home country Rwanda. Having attended University, he was sure that it would not be very difficult to get a well paying job. Armed with his academic transcripts, he embarked on the hunt for that big job that he thought awaited him upon completing University. “I applied and sat for more than seven job interviews but was not considered for any, yet I believed that I had the required paper qualifications” says Steven. However days became weeks and weeks turned into months, but employment was no where in sight. He realized that his hopes were just another pipedream. It was at that time that a friend of his and “comrade” on the street suggested to him that they find work as pump attendants at a fuel station. “I was shocked that this guy could suggest something of the sort”. Obviously Steven believed that kind of work was beneath his status as a University educated man. Without doubt he had imbibed a certain level of the elitist tendencies that afflict many young people who have had University education. This story is not unique to Steven, but many other young people. A number of them sometimes feel they are under-employed and are working in jobs not at per with their education level. After a few weeks he (Steven) got the marketing job which he still thought was not in line with his career aspirations. But having been “grassing” on the streets for months after leaving school, the job was definitely welcome. “I was tired of having to continue living with my parents yet I am a mature man” says Steven while talking about the reasons that made him take the decision of working as a marketing officer, a job he neither trained for nor fancied. Now after landing a better paying job that will be earning him close to half a million Rwandan francs per month, he thinks he has finally “arrived”. He attributes this to chance and maybe some perseverance and his never-give-up attitude and mentality. “For someone who went to University for a good number of years, this is a good start for the time being, but I would love to earn more than that” adds Steven with glow of happiness. Mugabe (24) has a story to tell. His is not so different from what Steven went through but unlike Steven he remains on the job hunt while working as a supervisor of sorts at his family’s bar and restaurant business. His current job station is not what he envisioned as an undergraduate student of Management at the School of Finance and Business (SFB). When I tell him that he is the right man for such a job since he studied Management, he retorts that it is not a job for someone of his status. “I simply have to do this work for the sake of it… although I do not tell many of my friends what I am doing”. For fear of embarrassment, some will not do some kind of work they believe to be beneath their education level. There are many young people in that category. A number of them have had to humble themselves and do practical jobs that can give them a sense of independence after school. Better still, some have had to look for jobs while still at school. Steven says that had he known better, he would have looked for work while still at campus. Being an evening student, he had plenty of time to utilize earning some income. But like most of his generation, he found most of the available work belittling and hence he chose to study without doing any gainful work on the side. Looking back, he regrets the choices he made while at School. “I would have earned some money to start up private business that would have been of great use to me at a later stage” he says with regret written all over his face. More to that, he says that he lost a chance on gaining relevant experience and good work ethics that would have enabled him to become immediately employable after school. Many young people fail to become employed or get better paying jobs because they lack the relevant experience. Many job adverts have more than two years experience as a requirement. Yet many young people do not have the advantage of this required experience. This has forced many of them to work on jobs they never trained for. It is not surprising to find someone who studied social sciences working as a teacher in a backwater secondary school. Nicholas Kaliisa could not find a job as a social worker and instead opted to start teaching as he awaited an opportunity to get a better paying job. As a teacher in a private school that is just in its infant stages in Kabarole Eastern province, he says that his level of income is below what he would require to lead a decent life. Many young people unhappy with their income like Mugabe and Kaliisa say that their investment in education is yet to bear the expected returns. Contact: frankkagabo@yahoo.com