The Missing Piece: What SME-Owning Graduates Think About Tanzanian Universities’ Contribution to Graduate Employability

Abstract

This paper examines the experiences of
Tanzanian graduates who set up and led their
SMEs in Dar es Salaam. Specifically, it seeks to
identify the extent of the mismatch between
academic education and practical skills, the
degree to which the university curriculum
prepares graduates for the SME sector, and how
confident graduates are of the prospect of
entrepreneurial success. The paper adopts a
narrative approach to tell a story about what
graduate employability means for those working
in the SME sector in Tanzania. The stories of
Rashid, Amina and Harry capture the intricacies
of the realities that newly graduated young
people in Dar es Salaam are grappling with
when trying to run their small business. On a
macro level, these stories being dissected
independently are unique, but they shed light on
many themes together. There needs to be a match
between the skills acquired through the
traditional educational avenue and the practical
skills necessary to run an SME. Thus, more
entrepreneurship and practical skill training
modules must be introduced into university
curricula.