Mismatch between education and labour market ‘a challenge’

Low proficiency among graduates in Rwanda has been highlighted as one of the serious challenges still affecting the labour market in the country.This was said, yesterday, by Apollo Munanura, the Head of Human Capital and Institutional Development (HCID) at Rwanda Development Board (RDB) during a conference on skills development for private sector growth.Munanura highlighted the mismatch in the academic qualifications obtained from local institutions and called for curricula that respond to the needs of the labour market.“Strong partnership between the public and private sector and higher learning institutions is paramount in the development of any country,” he stressed.Munanura encouraged the private sector and public and private universities to jointly work towards value addition for graduates to be suitable for the labour market.According to John Gara, the CEO of RBD, the country needs full engagement of the private sector to realise the development ambitions, saying that the private sector requires the right workforce.Dr Lesley Emmanuel, an expert challenged industries in the country to actively participate in the academic programmes, saying this way universities will develop curricula tailored to the specific skills they need.She added that there was need to promote employability skills in all universities.In a subsequent interview, Munanura said their intention was to introduce a vibrant and regular dialogue between the private sector and higher institutions of learning to avoid mismatch between what is needed on the labour market and what students are taught in the university.According to him, HCID every year trains 1,200 graduates from public and private universities on how to become competitive in the labour market.

National

Mismatch between education and labour market ‘a challenge’