PM: Produce employable, well-prepared graduates

PRIME Minister Kassim Majaliwa has said that as the country moves towards industrialisation, higher education institutions should produce graduates who are employable or are better prepared to take up jobs being created.

“We are on the right track in our industrialisation policy. Many jobs have been created, but we still have a gap in skilled labour. More efforts are needed so that graduates have requisite skills, are hardworking and ethical,” Mr Majaliwa said, when opening the refurbished and expanded building for Karume Institute of Science and Technology (KIST).

He urged the KIST management to be creative in identifying and teaching courses that are in demand. He also advised young people, who lacked qualifications for direct employment to apply for empowerment loans from local administrative councils.

“KIST should also have courses for the youth, who lack qualifications for direct entry that lasts two weeks to three months so that they can study and get skills in various sectors. We have laws that direct local and foreign employers to ensure the majority of employees are Tanzanians,” he noted.

He explained that both the Union and Zanzibar governments under President John Magufuli and Dr Ali Mohamed Shein were committed in seeing that all Tanzanians were engaged in national building.

KIST offers, among other courses, BA in aircraft maintenance and pilot training and diploma in mechanical engineering, automotive engineering, civil and transportation engineering, electrical engineering, electronics and telecommunication engineering, computer engineering and primary/secondary school science and mathematics.

Minister for Education and Vocational Training, Riziki Pembe Juma said at the event that her office had been working in collaboration with other institutions to ensure students in higher learning institutions received quality education.