By Mugabo Arafat.
University of Rwanda (UR) graduates find themselves unaware of which field they will be employed in the particular institutions of their respective courses because of lack of career guidance at the University throughout their studies.
A small number of the students visit a career planning center. Most of the students require learning and behavior support, above all, they need a highly trained, dedicated school counselor to help give them an opportunity in life after their accomplishment, on the student’s future working areas.
In recent years, various forms of career guidance and career counseling have become more prominent and better serviced in most universities throughout the world. Such services are obviously to the benefits of the students themselves and for society.
It doesn’t mean that University of Rwanda does not have career guidance department, but the process through which their work is conducted is what requires more improvement, I think that the counsellors should plan and come to the students.
In some countries like Uganda, universities tend to have career guidance day or event where successful people from all parts of the country come to talk to students on that day and give them counseling and advice on which kind of work on the labor market depending on one’s course. And they don’t stop there, they also advise on how to select a good course to pursue while continuing with Master’s degree.
At the University of Rwanda (UR), career guidance and counseling is still a problem to most of the students where even a 4th year student is not aware of kind of work to do after he/she graduates. That’s why most of the University graduates we have today do not do what they studied at the University on the job market, because they find themselves not interested in the course they graduated in.
The Ministry of Education and other stakeholders should think about how to improve the process through which career guidance and counseling is being carried out in the colleges for the goodness of the future generation.
This should result in a service that meets students’ needs more effectively.