Tracing Rwandan TVET Graduates’ Competences and Employability with their Potential Employers’ Satisfaction

Abstract

The government of Rwanda set its development agenda with a focus on transforming the country from a predominantly agrarian to a knowledge-based and service-driven economy by the year 2020. The role of WDA in strengthening linkages between education and employment is imperative for sustainable economic development. However, the relationship between education and employment cannot be ascertained without conducting a tracer study. It’s against this background that a tracer study about the employment status of TVET graduates across the trades/ disciplines was needed to assess their employability and the employers’ levels of satisfaction with the graduates’ competencies in the various agencies where the latter are employed, an in-depth assessment of how graduates assess themselves concerning the relevance and quality of their training and the labor market demands and research-based recommendations on what curriculum changes TVET institutions could be adapted to enhance the competence and employability level of the TVET graduates. We found that the employment rate of IBT graduates was quite impressive, as 70.1% of the graduates were employed, and the average earning per month was 63,592 Rwf. In addition, findings reveal that most respondents (64.9%) reported having spent less or equal to 3 months before they got employment, 14.4% indicated 4-6 months, and 15.2% reported 7-12 months. Regarding employer satisfaction of IBT graduates, competencies, 90.6% noted that they were delighted with the graduates’ work. This directly implies their level of performance on the job. However, some of the following challenges were highlighted. These included high student-teacher ratios, insufficient time for training, lack of meaningful network, and lack of job-related information and opportunities for further training.