Does Higher Education Mean Better Jobs For Africans?

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A recent study found that African youth with higher educational qualifications do not necessarily see proper job benefits from their education. According to the 2013 Gallup survey, African workers with any secondary education do only slightly better than African workers with only primary education regarding “positive employment outcome”. Gallup describes that a positive employment outcome is full time working opportunity for an employer, being employed part time but nor requiring full-time employment or being self-employed not by lack for job opportunities, but by choice.

Need For Pursuing Higher Education 

 

The high net education benefit (21 pct. pts according to the Gallup survey) of the Republic of Angola comes from the oil resources of the country which has resulted in fast urban growth, higher investments in education sector and more job creation for people with primary education. However, the overall scenario put forward an inconsistent and dismal picture for employment reward provided for higher education in Africa. This scenario is further motivated by the shortage of incentive for Africans to pursue higher education.

All over sub-Saharan Africa, it has been observed that basic needs tend to compete with the abilities of parents to send their kids to school. Although primary education is considered as facilitating specific professional activities in urban and rural communities, it is possible that many parents fail to see the advantages for continued education. In case families do realise its importance, the enrolment in higher education becomes infeasible due to the labour sacrifice. Most African families who send their kids to the school mainly do it because these parents think that education will lead to better employment opportunities.

Disparity In Educational Accomplishment

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Moreover, the difference in educational accomplishment throughout sub-Saharan Africa also depicts the challenges faced by the region in attaining global education standards. Nations like Burkina Faso and Niger, with only 10 per cent and 6 per cent respectively, have small percentage of populations pursuing some type of secondary education. However, Zimbabwe and South Africa have 74 per cent and 73 per cent of their population pursuing secondary education. It should be noted that although the intensity of secondary education and higher education considerably between Niger and Zimbabwe, the positive employment outcome is almost the same.

Another research conducted by the African Economic Outlook on education and skills disparity in the territory support the findings of the Gallup survey. This study offers an enhanced perspective by recognising that African individuals with higher education face higher unemployment levels in middle-income nations than nations with low-income.

Challenges Of Underemployment And Unemployment 

 

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The findings from the studies reveal that the underemployment and unemployment levels in most of the surveyed countries are almost same irrespective of the educational attainment of Africans. Hence, families in Africa might have to make lot of sacrifices for allowing their kids to pursue higher education, but see their children unemployed. At best, they will get underemployed at a similar level as Africans with only primary education.

What do you think about education and employment in Africa? Are you suffering from underemployment or unemployment? Share your opinions and experiences with us by commenting below. We would surely love to hear what you have to say.

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Online Education vs. Traditional Education: The Unresolved Debate

Recent surveys show that there are many people who support online education while some still think that they are not up to the mark or at level with traditional college education. Many believe that the quality of the courses taught in online colleges is not good.

Many people all around the world like the fact that online education provides many advantages to students who cannot attend traditional colleges, like affordability and flexibility. They think that it is the best way to receive higher education. This being said, many also believe that the value of online education is equal to that of traditional classroom education and some still think that online education is not a good option and the quality of education offered is not at par with traditional education.

Also, a few concerns about online education can be seen in the job market. Some employees said in a survey that few employers think that online degrees are valuable and some also believe that they are equal to a traditional degree but some employers still believe that online degrees are not good enough.

Despite all the support that online education gets, many think that the testing methods are not strict and grading is rather casual. They also believe that people who grade online test paper are less qualified than teachers in traditional schools and therefore don’t grade properly. According to some reports, the response is equal but is slightly inclined towards the negative side.

“If leaders in the field want online learning to have equal status with campus-based programs, they need to do more to demonstrate high standards for instruction, testing, and grading.” - A Gallup Survey Report

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A new survey at Gallup reveals a new statistic which suggests, in terms of quality, people consider internet based study programmes as ‘only fair’ in comparison with two years and four years college courses. Another survey conducted by Public Agenda suggests that many employers want to hire candidates who have a traditional degree from a mediocre college to candidates who have earned a college degree from top universities through the online mode. Employers even admit that online education requires greater discipline thus the quality of candidates might be better but they would still prefer students who have earned a traditional degree.

However, questions have also been raised on the quality of education in traditional colleges. The strategic initiatives manager of The Free Education Initiative at the Saylor Foundation says that people have this sort of mindset because they are not familiar with online education and lack awareness.

“I don’t think there’s any weight to the belief that quality suffers in online education any more so than with a lot of brick-and-mortars. We know brick-and-mortar degrees vary in quality, and that’s the same with online. Are there diploma mills online? Absolutely. But there are brick-and-mortars doing that as well.” - Jeff Davidson, strategic initiatives manager, The Free Education Initiative, Saylor Foundation (Source: goo.gl/raEfz0)

Therefore, the debate is still inconclusive as to whether or not online education is equal to traditional education if not better.

 

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