Promoting Entrepreneurship to Reduce Graduate Unemployment

Abstract

Graduate unemployment is a growing global concern. In 2019, the International Labour Organization (ILO) estimated that more than 73 million youth aged 15–24 were unemployed, the majority of them being student graduates from higher education institutions (HEIs). With a projected population increase of 10 billion by 2050, Africa will constitute 1.4 billion people, the majority of them being young people under the age of 25. Most graduates in developing countries such as Kenya fall under this age group, thus raising concern about their ability to join gainful employment or become self-reliant after graduation. With an average unemployment rate of 7.6% in 2020, The World Bank lists the skills gap between market requirements and the current curriculum provision as an impediment to Kenya's socio-economic agenda. This finding motivates more emphasis for higher education institutions to re-think their approaches in training and skilling. As such, the need for service-learning (SL) as a complementary pedagogy to enhance skills sets among graduates is necessary.