A vital feedback loop in educating and training archival professionals: a tracer study of records and archives management graduates in Zimbabwe

Abstract

Tracer studies are one of the tools that educational institutions may use to gauge the applicability of the courses they offer to their work environments. This study traced records and archives management (RAM) alumni who graduated from the National University of Science and Technology between 2008 and 2012. The main purpose of the study was to find out where RAM graduates were and what they were doing and establish if the skills they acquired during their education placed them in jobs relevant to their profession. A quantitative survey with a triangulation of data collection methods was employed. Data were collected through the use of questionnaires, interviews and document analysis. Data was analysed using quantitative methods with the assistance of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The results indicate that 67 percent of RAM graduates were employed, with the greatest number employed in parastatals, that is, agencies which are quasi-governmental. Skills that graduates acquired during their education were relevant to their jobs though they were not happy with the limited industrial attachment and exposure to practical training, and the sketchy coverage of aspects of information technology in the curriculum. Results also indicate that some organizations in industry did not appreciate the essence of the RAM profession. It is recommended that the Department of Records and Archives Management should involve stakeholders such as employers when designing the curriculum so that they may appreciate what the Department was doing, and should equip its graduates with skills that are always relevant to industry. Information technology aspects of the curriculum and industrial attachment for students need a rethink.