Analysis of the Role of Community Actors towards Self-Employment Support for Higher Education Graduates in Tanzania

Abstract

The study aimed to explore the community perceptions about higher education graduates’ employability and community support practices towards graduates’ access to self-employment. A sample of 314 community participants using systematic random sampling was used to select participants for the study. The sample involved staff from the selected divisions and departments at the district councils, wards, villages and local street government offices. The other sample was employees from selected community based organisations located in respective study regions and districts. The study used an explanatory mixed design where quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed sequentially. The results showed that,146(46.5%) of community participants perceived higher education graduates’ participation in self-employment as poor, while only 80(25.5%) perceived it as good. Further, 223(71.0%) of the studied community organs had no specific support services for graduates, 63(20.1) percent offered them for sometimes, and 28 (8.9%) said they had specific services. Results also showed that, out of the six examined factors; support from family, friends, and relatives 154(49.0%) and hard work 135(43.0%) were rated as most contributing factors to graduates’ access to self-employment. The interview results showed that, negative graduates’ and lack of specific support schemes highly contributed to low graduates’ participation in self-employment. The study concludes that, the community support for enhancing higher education graduates’ access to self-employment is poor and disorganized. Deliberate actions were recommended for the policy makers to encourage the Tanzania communities towards support for graduates’ access to self-employment