Developing soft skills sets for graduate employability in Africa

The current global labour market in the field of science technology engineering and math (STEM) is for employers to identify versatile graduates who are not only equipped with technical skills, but more importantly with soft skills that will drive their organizations to compete successfully in the labor market. Employers are however lamenting that the graduates have not adequately acquired employability skills and soft skills during their training in universities. The purpose of this article is therefore to discuss the various modules used by the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) to improve postgraduate programmes in order to develop soft skills among graduates from RUFORUM member Universities. Particularly, the article will focus on two key skills enhancement courses which are aimed at developing the graduates’ research skills and ultimately their employability in the field of STEM namely: Scientific Data Management and Analysis (SDM/A) training and the Proposal Writing Scientific Writing and Journal Publications training. These were the most sought for soft skills trainings among the RUFORUM member universities. The article seeks to highlight the benefits of the trainings to the staff and students from these Universities. The article will also present participants’ views and perceptions regarding the training, collected via questionnaires, of the importance and necessity of the trainings for their studies and future careers.