Kenya’s Bachelor Of Commerce Graduates’ Employability Skills And The Job Market Demands – 2009 To 2011

Abstract

The study found out that employability skills of graduates in Kenya are now considered to be the most important skills which the employers pay keen attention to. This study aimed at establishing whether there were skills mismatch between B. Com graduates and Job Market expectations. The study objectives were: (i) To establish what employability skills the B. Com graduates actually possess as they enter the job market. (ii) To establish the employability skills the employers expect from B. Com graduates to have when they enter the job market. (iii) To find out the nature of the skills gap (if any) between employers‘ expectations and what the B. Com graduates have. (iv) To determine methods of bridging the skills gap between employers‘ expectations. The study targeted 10,000 B. Com graduates from 37 charted Kenya‘s universities, and 2,500 employers registered with Federation of Kenya Employers [FKE]. Systematic research design and stratified research designs were used to sample 1000 B. Com graduates and 250 employers [HRM] respectively. Questionnaires, focus group interviews were data collection instruments. Statistical Package for Social Sciences [SPSS] version 18 was used to analyse data. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized. The descriptive statistics revealed that there were employability skills gap between employers expectations and what the B. Com graduates had. The study recommended the need of a joint venture among the industry players, university curriculum developers and other stakeholders, so as to bridge the skills gap.