The overall unemployment rate in Kenya stands at 12.7% while that of the youth aged 15 to34 years, is at 67%. Part of an ongoing debate has centered around work-readiness of graduates from Kenya’s universities, with industry claiming that the skills the graduates are acquiring are not applicable to Kenya’s labor market. Industry players argue that the typical graduate lacks both the soft skills, such as communication, teamwork, and resilience, and hard skills, including problem-solving and entrepreneurial drive to effectively contribute to the industry’s demands. Kenya’s higher education has faced criticism including outdated and heavily theoretical curricula that have no connection with practical challenges and opportunities, over-expansion and over-enrolment, and over-stretched faculty and infrastructure. It can be argued that this situation has possibly watered down the quality of education, resulting in ill-prepared graduates with dimmed chances for absorption into the world of work.
The industry has been accused of folding its arms and leaving the heavy lifting to the university, only expecting “fully baked” graduates without investing in the process of their preparation.
In addition, critics take note of employers’ unwillingness to provide opportunities, especially paid ones, that can enhance the skills of the graduates once they enter the workplace. In some cases, there are some companies that require interns to pay them for internship opportunities, in spite of the internships being unpaid.
Internship and industrial attachment opportunities are sporadic and not standardized, therefore, they do not offer substantive exposure to the work environment.
Seemingly weak university-industry linkages often result in students graduating without having adequate practical experience in their area of training.
Closing the gap between lecture halls and workplace
How can this perceived divide between university and industry be closed? Significant investment has been made in Kenya’s education sector over the years. For example, in the 2025/26 financial year, the sector received the largest share of the total National Government budget with an allocation of 28.1% (Kshs. 701.1 billion).
The assumption is that investment in education should have a positive impact on industry in terms of graduates who possess the relevant skills for individual and national socio-economic development.
Also Read: Why Some First-Class Graduates Find It Hard to Secure a Job
However, there seems to be a lingering gap between learning and performance. This gap appears to be rooted in competence. For too long, competence has been narrowly defined as the mere acquisition of knowledge. This has fostered a knowledge-based approach to teaching and learning, with a heavy reliance on summative exams and academic certificates as proof of competence.
Unfortunately, these certificates often require further validation through additional workplace training, raising the question of the rationale of continued heavy investment in education if graduates still need to be reskilled and retooled to perform effectively in the world of work.
Learning vs industry demand
While there are those who argue that learning at the university level should be learning for its own sake, academic learning should also be driven by industry demand and aligned with national development goals and targets.
Therefore, bridging the gap between learning and work calls for a paradigm shift in both industry and academia. There is a critical need to measure competency levels in both academia and industry. This must begin with a clear, shared understanding of what “competence” actually means.
We often confuse the acquisition of skills, knowledge, and certificates with competence. However, according to UNEVOC, a comprehensive definition of competence is the ability to apply a set of related skills, knowledge, and attitude to successfully perform functions or tasks in a defined work/life setting.
Therefore, competence is manifested in the application of knowledge, skills and attitude. Determination of competency levels requires standards. Only what is measured can be improved and managed.
At the same time, the learning continuum from Kenya’s university to industry requires meaningful change that is more than structural shifts. It requires rethinking of purpose, alignment, and measurement of performance.
The two constituents- industry and university- can begin by collaboratively reviewing the current curriculum, identifying the opportunities and gaps, and co-designing curricula that respond to the priority needs of industry, society, and country.
The curriculum should also be embedded with mutually agreed upon criteria for defining competence.
Also Read: Why Unemployment Among Kenyan Graduates is Rising and What Needs to be Done
In the recent past, the TVET sector has tried to bridge this divide by revising and shaping its curriculum to reflect Competency-Based Education. The university is making similar attempts, but the journey is slow.
Conducting tracer studies of where the graduates are absorbed-if they are- and sharing the data with industry can paint a strong picture for industry and where it would need to invest and which study areas universities need to develop or strengthen.
The industry can then support the university with financial and material resources and specialized technical expertise for developing relevant courses that ensure graduates have the skills and competence that the market needs. This in turn ensures there is greater return on investment for industry.
Intentional policies
Policies need to be in place to encourage industry to open its doors to greater collaboration with the university. For example, giving industry tax incentives/exempts for companies or organizations that provide internship and industrial attachment opportunities to graduates with skills and competence relevant to the specific industry.
Through corporate social responsibility efforts, industry also needs to invest directly in developing the university’s human resources.
The industry can support or deliver capacity-strengthening opportunities to the teaching staff. In addition, industry can also initiate or support university infrastructure development; all these efforts are bound to impact teaching and learning.
There are definitely gaps that can be filled by both sectors beginning to engage and work together, leading to greater synergy.
Universities have their standards and quality assurance structures, such as the Commission for University Education (CUE), the vice-chancellors committee, and deans’ committees.
The industry has its own structures, such as the Kenya Association of Manufacturers (KAM), Kenya Private Sector Alliance (KEPSA), and the Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI). These bodies should ideally be engaging with each other regularly and in a structured manner, subsequently bridging the gap between learning at the university and performance at the workplace.
Only when we ask both sides what they can bring to the table and create synergy will we then have begun the journey to redesign the industry-university linkage.
About Authors
Dr. Lucy A. Wakiaga, Associate Research Scientist Higher Education Research focus area lead in the Human Development Theme at the African Population and Research Center
Dr. Brown Onguko, Associate Research Scientist, Education & Technology focus area lead in the Human Development Theme at the African Population and Research Center
Mr. Daniel Okal, Certified Return on Investment Professional (CRP), Partner Return On Investment (ROI) Institute US, TVET trainer, assessor and verifier, and a STEM teacher.
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