Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The unemployment rate and the disappearance of certain jobs in the Kenyan work place is a major concern that needs urgent attention. This paper does not necessarily focus on labor market analysis or how to improve graduate employability, but rather attempts to present an anthropological description of the contemporary work place, a reality that most educators may not be familiar with. It reveals the new patterns in organizational structures with a focus on customization and globalization; and stress on the demand for design rather than mass production that characterized the traditional work place. Implications for individual workers and challenges to higher education in terms of academic screening, the curriculum specificity, the basis of education and schooling are discussed. The paper stresses the importance of understanding the changing requirements for today’s laborers as this has important implications on higher education in terms of skills, training and capacity. Specifically, educators are asked to respond to the question “What does it feel like to produce graduates whose employment is not guaranteed? This question is foundational and intentionally asked in this paper to awaken the responsibility and imagination of educators, for without a sense of responsibility and imagination the gross problem of unemployment of the Kenyan graduates will not be solved.
DOI: 10.67861/weh2x734
Author: Catherine A Amimo
Institution: University of Eastern Africa, Baraton
Language: English
Subfield: Education
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2337196992