I’m currently working on an audit for a
CARIMAC course-Organisational Communication and just carried out a couple surveys.
It caused me to realise how fragile student welfare is and welfare on a whole
in Jamaica.
We know all too well the common
complaints of university and college graduates – no jobs. Many a solutions have
been offered: Major in the more “practical” areas, government should grow the
economy and create more jobs, there needs to be more entrepreneurs. The lack of
security for a graduate in finding a job is shifted from the individual to the government
to society.
Has it been considered that the
university is training thousands of individuals annually, like a factory, every
increasing its production capacity, ever producing more and more goods. But
what happens when the market becomes saturated with those goods; where there
isn’t consumption whether because of poor market research and or lack of
advertising? Students are left stranded and burdened by the weight of a very
good education.
What can be done? The key is research!
And whose responsibility is it? It’s everybody’s responsibility. Graduates are
tertiary institutions’ commodity. And just as any quality products on the market
has to have nutrition facts to be taken seriously, so too does the university have to research the
content of its products; that is, majoring in a particular area cultivates such
and such skills upon successful completion of training. In addition, market
research must also be done: what are the skills required in this and that field
and how will an employee with such skill boost the productivity of an
organisation?
How can this be accomplished? Find out
what is needed by Jamaican’s economy and who needs what. Apply special
psychological research to determine how a graduate’s mind would have been
trained upon successful completion of particular majors. This is where
innovation comes in. Some students enter specified fields because that is the
kind of job they want, some enter because it’s what they love, others because
it’s what they’re good at, some just because it’s what they believe to be
manageable and then there are the blind ones who just want a degree. All of the
aforementioned categories are trained minds, regardless of the reason for
training, whose skills may be applied and may even be applied better outside of
their field of study. The key is to highlight all the options to all
stakeholders and let them choose – match skills to market, consumers to product
and products to consumers.
What skills are needed by an insurance
broker, marketing consultant, investment manager, a transportation minister,
events planner, who are more suited to be entrepreneurs etc.?
What kinds of training can garner these
skills?
Who is willing to invest in finding that
person or those persons who will grow their organisation?
