Research undertaken by the Kenya ICT Board has revealed that companies operating in the ICT sector are having difficulty finding enough skilled staff.
Approximately a quarter of companies that responded to the Julisha Monitoring and Evaluation Survey said they were not satisfied with the quality of professionals produced by Kenyan universities and colleges. A third of companies contact external providers to fill these skills gaps rather than employing Kenyan graduates.
Applications systems analysts and software developers are the professions where capable staff are most lacking, with 45% of respondents saying they were difficult or very difficult to find.
According to the report, some 9 600 professionals will be needed to fill the Kenyan IT workforce by 2013, with software development and project management roles expected to see the biggest increase in positions, at 70% and 57% growth, respectively. These forecasts have increased the pressure on Kenyan educational institutions to produce graduates with the relevant skills to fill these positions.
The problem with graduates is not solely based on the lack of certain technical skills, but also on more general and basic ones. “When probed on the types of skills lacking in graduates, companies cited innovative thinking, problem solving and project management as the top three skills that are lacking,” the report says.
“Some of these findings were seconded by university interviewees that indicated lower ratings on project management skills and innovative thinking.”
Companies also said graduates were lacking business skills and failing to keep up with technological trends, expressing the view “that the gap between theory and practice needs to be bridged via mediums such as internships”.
Brain drain
Businesses laid the blame for these failings at the door of Kenya's educational institutions, with claims made that some of the skills obtained from universities and colleges are not adequate for the industry. “Consistency of curriculum was a common theme, with lack of guidelines emphasised,” the report continued. “The watered-down value of certifications and lack of market-relevant courses in some educational institutions were other themes.”
Part of the problem may be a lack of experience faculty within the technological education system, with it being difficult for educational institutions to match private sector pay and so attract the most capable teachers. Many with the most advanced skills choose to leave the country and as yet there is little evidence of highly-skilled IT professionals locating to Kenya to fill the gap.
The report recommends expanding the capabilities of universities and colleges, establishing specialised training programmes and integrating ICT into the education system more fully.
Making changes
This comes at a time when an aspiring university is moving away from standard education practices to prepare young Kenyans to make the most of opportunities in the country's growing IT sector.
Bondo University College was established by the government in 2009 with forward-thinking technological experts determined to change the mindsets of students and allow them to play a key role in Kenya's technological development.
“We want to get into the realm of actually building the technology,” says Dr Kefa Rabah, who runs the BSc course in Computer Science and Communications Engineering.
Rabah believes Kenyans need to change the way they perceive technology. “We are being fed smart technology and we don't know about it,” he says. “We want to change the way we perceive technology. We can do it. That is the way we want to go as Kenyans.”
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