A university don, Prof Francis Mulaa, said on Thursday evening Kenya’s graduating engineers from the local universities are unemployable because they are not properly prepared.
Prof Mulaa from the Biochemistry Department at the University of Nairobi claimed engineering graduates in Kenya’s public universities are ill-prepared to take up jobs in the market.
“Those graduating cannot design, fabricate or assemble anything and yet they call themselves engineers. The serious engineering sectors in the country are now depending on graduates from outside because ours cannot qualify,” said Mulaa.
Mulaa said Fuliza entities in the country can access loans to lend out in their businesses but engineers cannot access the money for inventions because it is a known fact that they are half-baked in their training.
The professor was contributing during the African Circular Economy Network meeting at the Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi when he called on the government to strengthen teacher training for lecturers in the universities and also introduce engineering courses in primary and secondary schools.
“By doing so, the students who will take engineering courses in the university will have an idea of what they will be training for. Right now, the time allocated to the course is messing up the students,” said the professor.
He wondered loud that the government should not waste resources in training engineers who cannot be given jobs.
He said for the country to succeed in producing qualified engineers who can get jobs anywhere in the world, the teaching of the subject should be started early.
“Some of the Nigerians who are preaching in the country are good engineers, and even doing better in the preaching than ours, who graduate and go back to the villages,” he said.
He said the government must put aside resources to train the teachers to have the desired capacity to train engineers, otherwise, the country will continue producing useless graduates.
“What we are doing at the UoN is to impart the students with knowledge but not the skills. In the UK and other developed nations, students are provided with knowledge and skills so that they can go out there and get jobs,” he said.
He said science and engineering are not working together in local universities like in Europe.
The professor was on the panel with Mary Aming’a, a PhD student from Strathmore, Juliet Hinga (Strathmore), Adrian Jankowiak (Nairobi Design Week), and Dipesh Pabari (The FlipFlopi Projects).