KAMPALA – Uganda Business and Technical Examinations Board – UBTEB has embarked on carrying out its second tracer study geared at informing curriculum improvement.
The month-long study is focused on alumni who completed studies between 2016 and 2019 in the business sector including; National Diploma in Secretarial and Information Science, National Diploma in Business Studies and Diploma in Hotel and Institutional Catering.
In an exclusive interview with PML Daily, Dr. Nahamya Wilfred – Board’s Deputy Executive Secretary noted that the study is aimed at finding out whether these alumni are employed in their respective trades or not but also how much time they take after completing their studies to get into job market.
“Most important is to see whether the training is in line with the demands of the world of work.”
“I want to encourage those going to be asked to participate freely because the information helps to improve the sector,” he urged.
The first study on alumni who studied automotive engineering, electrical engineering, and civil engineering at diploma levels was released early May this year.
Data showed that 90 percent of the Technical Vocational and Education Training graduates are more skillful than their University counterparts.
It also indicated that 63 percent of these graduates get employed within one year after graduation.
“UBTEB graduates are more practical oriented because they are more skilled due to practical exposure, because of real-life projects done by UBTEB graduates, they do not need more attention at the time of recruitment like we do to university students, we do not struggle much with them when a new practical idea is Initiated, they know and understand how to use hand tools and machines compared to university graduate,” employers said.
The study showed that approximately 95 percent of employers require that their employees should have a diploma qualification and only 5 percent revealed that a diploma qualification was not a prerequisite for job access.
In terms of hands-on skills, study showed that employers are 100 percent satisfied that the engineering TVET diploma prepared graduates either well or very well for the job market.
“Over 96 percent of the graduates identify engineering courses as helpful when searching for jobs. Career and personal development, fulfilling professional tasks development and finally this course can result into the economic development of the country.”
However, on industrial training, alumni revealed that it takes a shorter period and does not provide students with the necessary skills. They are displeased with the way the industrial training is conducted.
This was confirmed by the curriculum specialists who revealed that industrial training challenges have greatly affected the quality of TVET graduates.
