An Analysis Of Kenya's Bachelor of Commerce Graduates' Employability Skills and The Job Market Demands

Abstract

This study aimed at establishing whether there were skills mismatch between Bachelor of Commerce graduates and Job Market expectations. The study objectives were: to establish what employ-ability skills the Bachelor of Commerce graduates actually possess as they enter the job market; to establish the employ-ability skills the employers expect from Bachelor of Commerce graduates to have when they enter the job market; to establish whether there were skills gap between employers' expectations and what the Bachelor of Commerce graduates had, and to determine methods ol' bridging the skills gap (if any) between employers' expectations. The study targeted l 0,000 Bachelor of Commerce graduates from chartered Kenya's public and private universities, and 2,500 employers registered with Federation of Kenya Employers (FKE). Systematic research design and stratified research designs were used to sample 1000 B. Com graduates and 250 employers (HRM) respectively. Questionnaires, focus group interviews were data collection instruments. Cronbach's alpha coefficients were used to assess the internal consistency of the measuring instruments. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18 was used to analyse data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. The descriptive statistics revealed that there were employ-ability skills gap between employers expectations and what the Bachelor of Commerce graduates had. The study found out that employ-ability skills of graduates in Kenya are now considered to be the most important skills which the employers pay keen attention to. The findings of the study would be beneficial to academicians,future researchers, the government, employers and all other education players.The study recommended the need of a joint venture among the industry players, university curriculum developers and other stakeholders, so as to bridge the skills gap.

The researcher believes that entrepreneurship/ juakali would be the strategic approach in addressing the unemployment problem among university graduates in Kenya and Africa in general. Universities should train graduates to become entrepreneurs, this promote them to be job providers rather than job seekers. Government/stakeholders should initiate job exporting strategy - source for job openings globally. Universities/industries/stakeholders should establish partnerships to align Bachelor of Commerce programmes with the needs of the job market. Universities should establish web-based career guidance portals and stakeholders should keep abreast of emerging new demands. Finally. the results or the study contributed towards filling the employ-ability) skills gap between the employer's expectations and what the graduates possess.