Another reason for higher unemployment among fresh graduates is lack of adequate work experience demanded by many employers. For example, employers need graduates who have more than three years of experience.
These requirements pose a challenge for fresh graduates as most of them do not have working experience, and cannot expect to obtain working experience for as long as they have not obtained a job.
Due to their education backgrounds, where most of them went to schools and colleges without adequate teaching and learning resources including competent teachers, It is evident that many fresh graduates do not posses necessary work and interpersonal skills that attract employers. Many of our schools and colleges focus more on academic achievement whereby students are prepared to pass exams.
I would argue that, it would be worth for fresh graduates to take up some of their time to volunteer in the areas of their expertise to consolidate their competence on their work and interpersonal skills, while waiting for job offers to come. Last week, I was talking to my friend Edward who has graduated last year with outstanding performance.
He has been searching in vain for job since his graduation in November last year. He eventually told me that he has decided to volunteer with an international NGO in order to add skills while waiting for employment.
Another friend, Nancy also completed her studies in Project Management last year. Since July last year, she decided to take volunteership for one year with a church-based development NGO in Tarime.
She recently told me that volunteering for one year has helped her consolidate necessary working and interpersonal skills needed in the job market. Since she completed her volunteership in July this year, she has received a number of job offers.
In general terms, volunteering is the practice of people working on behalf of others or a particular cause without payment for their time and services.
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be considered self-serving.
Volunteering takes many forms and is performed by a wide range of people. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work in, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Other volunteers serve on an as-needed basis, such as in response to a natural disaster or for a beach-cleanup.
Volunteering can help fresh graduates to build social capital. According to Wikipedia, the social capital generated by volunteering plays a key role in economic regeneration by widening social networks needed by fresh graduates.
It is possible that you will be able to obtain information on job opportunities through social networks or the organisation you are volunteering. I have personal experience in this. I completed my undergraduate studies in 2001, and I could not obtain any job for about a year.
However, during this time I decided to volunteer with a youth NGO. Through this I managed to obtain a lot of information on job opportunities, including a job offer with an international NGO.
On the other side skills-based volunteering refers to volunteering in which the volunteer is specifically trained in the area they are volunteering in.
This is in contrast to traditional volunteering, where specific training is not required. It is also believe skill-based volunteering would be a cost-effective training option, something important in tough economic times. Skills-based volunteerism remains a largely underutilized resource by both businesses and nonprofit organisations.
Volunteering cannot necessarily be totally free. Volunteers can be given a certain amount of money which will sustain some their personal minimal costs such as bus fare, lunch, phone calls. In other words volunteers can earn a little while supporting an organisations’ programmes at a minimal operational costs.
A market review by the Independent Sector (USA) show that the average hour of traditional volunteering is valued by at between $18–20 an hour; while Skills-based volunteering is valued at $40–500 an hour depending on the market value of the time.
Engaging volunteers is advantageous to the organisation as it will be able to utilize skills of the fresh graduates to perform its functions at very minimal costs. Imaging tasks such as research data collection or data entry, an organisation could have utilised million of shillings to engage a consultant company, while engaging volunteers could reduce costs tremendously.
The 2008 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, shows the vast majority of Human Resources managers believe that volunteering business skills can be a powerful tool for cultivating critical business and leadership skills and that the intentional integration of volunteer activities into talent development would add value to their programs.
As individual Americans invest more hours into volunteer activities, employers are seeking to match and support this zeal for generosity by instituting formal workplace volunteer programs
Human Resources professionals interested in developing new volunteerism programs can take a page from some established, well-organized, sophisticated programs. One example is Toyota Motor Manufacturing, of Georgetown, Ky., which created its Volunteers In Place (VIP) program in 1994.
Those who believe that volunteerism programs are the sole responsibility of large firms with deep pockets could learn a lesson from The Fun Company, a 65-person Atlanta-based firm that developed an all-employee volunteerism program called Volunteer Fun Company.
However, there are a number of challenges on skills based volunteerism. First, many of the organizations do not have volunteer program policies, and there is no government policy which encourages these organisations to set such kind of programs.
Another challenge is that most of organisations in Tanzania prefer to engage volunteers from abroad than local volunteers. In addition, organisations which accept volunteers do not provide any kind of support such as some allowances for them to meet their minimal costs such as transport costs.
Employers need to Realise that skills based volunteerism benefits both ways-volunteers and the organisations. Therefore, they need to establish policies to accept skills based volunteerism depending on their activities. They also need to determine which skills can be enhanced by volunteer service, which volunteer opportunities can help deliver results and how the outcomes can effectively be measured, just as with other training investments.
A strong skills-based volunteer program can serve as a valuable business strategy in so far as it improves the health of the environment in which a company operates and provides an effective and cost-efficient platform for: Showcasing organizational capabilities in the marketplace, enhancing corporate image, generating resonance and interest among stakeholders, providing valuable professional development and networking opportunities for employees, and assisting in ongoing recruitment and retention efforts.
The writer: Masozi David Nyirenda, is a Specialist in Education Management, Economics of Education and Policy Studies. He is reached through 0754304181 or albertsozzy@yahoo.com
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
