Employer perceptions and attitudes towards agricultural university training in Kenya
Date
2018Author
Onyango, Cecilia M
Kunyanga, Catherine N
Karanja, Davis N
Wahome, Raphael G
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Agriculture is the backbone of most Sub
-
Saharan African economies accounting for 40 % of the GDP
and 80% employment. Yet agricultural graduates have not been able to “hit the ground running” upon
graduation. This study assessed the qua
lity of agricultural graduates from Kenyan Universities in terms
of relevance to job market demands. A mixed method approach was used to collect data through a
personal interview survey and focus group discussions involving 54 public and private organizati
ons.
Descriptive statistics was used to generate means and frequencies to validate the study hypotheses.
Results indicated that employers’ main concern on quality of graduates were poor interpersonal (>
90%), communication (53%), practical (>90%) and chara
cter (78%) skills. Further future agriculture will
be impacted by competencies in practical skills (56%) and training in contemporary issues like climate
change (17%). Success of agricultural production to a large degree depends on the human resources
avai
lable within the sector. If the quality of university graduates is poor, it negatively affects the entire
knowledge chain. This research also has an implication for university administrators and policy makers
in training holistic graduates that meet employ
ers’ and socio
-
economic development needs.
Integrating job market requirements into university curricula can improve the quality of graduates that
directly impact agricultural productivity for economic development and poverty reduction.
Citation
Onyango, Cecilia Moraa, et al. "Employer perceptions and attitudes towards agricultural university training in Kenya." International Journal for Innovation Education and Research 6.1 (2018): 175-185.Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
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