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.