By: Ketemba Tjipepa

Namibia’s graduate employment rates dropped from 83% to 66% between 2017 and 2021. This information is based on a national graduate surveys conducted by the National Council for Higher Education (NCHE) regarding graduates who completed their studies between 2012 and 2018. NCHE also indicated that the percentage of graduates who secured jobs within the first 12 months of job seeking is declining, with only 45% of graduates who completed their studies between 2017 and 2018 were able to secure employment in 2021.

This was shared during the launch of NCHE 2024 national graduate survey (NGS) on Tuesday. This is the 5th survey scheduled to run from May 21 to August 21 this year and aims to collect data from graduates who completed their studies in 2019, 2020, and 2021 from five institutions, including the University of Namibia (Unam), Namibia University of Science and Technology (NUST), and the International University of Management (IUM), among others.

NHCE Secretariat, deputy executive director Dr Sylvia Demas emphasised the importance of the graduate survey and reflected on the past survey.

“In 2017, 69% (graduates)said they spent between less than a quarter to 12 months searching for jobs. But in 2021, only 45% of the graduates were able to secure employment,” remarked Demas while adding that average graduate employment rates were high in education, health and law.

“What has been very striking is that employment in the field of agriculture has been persistently low,” stated Demas.

In addition, Ministry of Higher Education, Training and Innovation (MHETI) executive director Dr. Alfred Van Kent urged academics to analyse agriculture trends and craft policy briefs that will strengthen the sector.

“We have heard that there is a decline in employment in the agriculture sector for graduates. This is an important piece of information. There might be other pieces of information like that. But if there is a decline of graduates in this particular area, what is the impact thereof? So these are the questions that we have to answer. So the output of this graduate survey or research project is very critical for us to identify these particular areas where we need to come up with solutions or further interventions to improve our higher education landscape,” said van Kent.

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