SUA Links Students With Alumni CEOs to Close Skills Gap

Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) has begun connecting students with alumni-led companies, in response to a Vice-Presidential directive requiring that 10,000 young Tanzanians gain practical skills and work experience every year.

SUA Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Academics, Research and Consultancy, Prof Maulid Mwatawala, announced the initiative yesterday at a meeting with business leaders who graduated from the Morogoro-based university. The Directorate of Internationalisation and Alumni Relations organised the gathering to identify areas of cooperation between the institution and graduates who own or lead companies.

What does the directive require?

Prof Mwatawala said the directive reached the university through its Vice-Chancellor after the Vice-President instructed the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), SUA's regulatory body, to ensure the annual target of 10,000 skilled young people is met.

"The Vice-President directed the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), our regulatory body, to ensure that 10,000 young people acquire skills and work experience every year. Practical training is necessary to acquire these skills," Prof Mwatawala said.

SUA chose to act early, he said, by building a platform that assembles graduate business leaders to discuss opportunities for the institution's development.

What are alumni CEOs being asked to do?

Prof Mwatawala called on chief executives who studied at SUA to open their companies' projects and activities to students seeking hands-on experience.

"I urge CEOs of companies who graduated from SUA to use your positions to give our students opportunities to gain practical experience through various projects and activities in your institutions and companies," he said.

Such placements, he argued, will close the gap between classroom knowledge, practical skills and work experience — improving young graduates' chances of securing employment in a labour market where academic credentials alone no longer suffice.

Where is the private sector money?

NMB Bank's Head Office Head of Agribusiness, Mr Nsolo Mlozi — himself an SUA graduate — said the bank has set aside 20bn/- to fund start-up projects for young people and special groups.

"Start-up projects not only contribute to the national economy, but also help graduates gain experience in production and business operations," Mr Mlozi said.

For individual graduates, the two channels — alumni-run firms offering placements and bank-financed start-up capital — translate into concrete entry points into Tanzania's agribusiness and production sectors.

What did the alumni see on campus?

Before the meeting, the business leaders toured SUA projects to understand the university's work and pinpoint areas for cooperation. The tour covered:

• The APOPO project, including a briefing on its implementation
• A construction site for a factory producing SUA products, including bottled water and juice
• Buildings under construction through the Higher Education Economic Transformation (HEET) Project

The university indicated that these sites could become practical training grounds as the programme scales toward the national 10,000-person annual target, with alumni companies expected to absorb a share of that cohort.