President Uhuru Kenyatta has called for harmonisation of higher education and training systems in the region that would allow young East Africans to study in a university of their choice and allow for cross border movement of graduates.
President Uhuru Kenyatta
“This means our graduates will leave university well equipped to spearhead our industrialisation; they will come out job creators and not job seekers”, President Kenyatta said when addressing the second academia-private sector forum in Nairobi this week.
In his speech read by Hon. Phyllis Kandie, Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of EAC Affairs, Commerce and Tourism, also called for development of a strong academia-private sector partnership with the support of the East African Community (EAC) governments for the realisation of the regional aspirations.
He said that because the private sector is the major employer of human resources from higher education institutions, it should contribute to curriculum development and delivery processes, as well as research and innovation programmes in academic institutions.
President Kenyatta further said that the private sector should ensure that there is development of competent, skilled and enterprising human capital capable of meeting the sector’s needs. The academia-private sector partnership, he said, would unleash innovation and boost entrepreneurship skills among the young people across the region.
“This has the potential to stimulate socio-economic development of the region,’’ he pointed out.The private sector is now committed to getting involved in the development of curricula, supporting research and also commercialising the research output and innovations, East African Business Council chairman Vimal Shah has said.
“The private sector has for a long time lamented the paucity of right skills among workers, especially the graduates being churned by the local universities. This will now come to an end,’’ Mr Shah said in his speech read on his behalf by EABC director Mwine Jim Kabeho.
The Forum started on Thursday, and is scheduled to end today. It is being held in Kenyatta International Conference Centre.
Approaches to stimulate interactions and partnerships between the private sector and universities would have to be developed in order to realise the desired results, Mr Shah said.
He advised that the public sector must realise that it has an essential role in recognising and maintaining support towards basic research.
The private sector has consistently maintained that the academia-private sector partnerships will lead to creation of employment for the growing number of graduates from local universities.
The EAC Secretary General Dr Richard Sezibera said that the dialogue between academia and private sector was critical for transforming the region into sustainable knowledge-based economy.
“We are at historic junction in Africa’s march to socio-economic development,’’ he said, urging East Africa to seize the moment to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty.
He told the participants during the opening ceremony that the recommendations agreed upon during the first forum held in Arusha, Tanzania last year were being implemented.
During last year’s forum, the participants made a recommendation to rotate the forum and exhibitions among the EAC partner states. This, Dr Sezibera said, has been implemented and that is why the forum is being held in Kenya this year.
The participants at last year’s event also agreed on carrying out a survey to establish the status of academia-private sector partnerships in the region and how they are contributing to socio-economic development. This survey, Dr Sezibera said, has already been done and the results will be discussed during this year’s forum.
The forum continues deliberating on areas of collaborations and partnerships for the common good of the citizens of the East African Community.
By ANNE KIRUKU of EANA
