A’s in Examinations and D’s in Work Culture

Let’s talk about examinations and the actual practical field today (of course referring to theory and practical arenas). I remember going through a smooth run in my undergraduate studies, getting good grades and sometimes exceptional ones, of course which took some hard studying and all the perks of school life or rather undergraduate life. Being an economics student, one question always struck me ‘When do I get to see and do the practical side of all these economic theories’. Apparently, I did not realize that this question was actually being answered every day in my daily life. I once asked my Teacher of Economics in high school where in Economics we would actually apply trigonometry, and he had a hard time actually answering that at first until I actually saw a chapter of Trigonometry being applied in the Business Cycle Theories, and well as any student would be, I was amazed despite not being able to grasp and fully understand it at the time or as my teacher would say, it was above my level.

But enough said on the ‘Theory and Practical Relationship of Courses or Academic Subjects’ which may be a whole new topic of discussion on its own. For this discussion, am more interested in a complaint that was raised by one Education Activist, on the work attitude of graduates. He was saying this on the basis that many companies that hired fresh graduates(specifically those of diploma and diploma levels), perhaps who had no work experience whatsoever complained to him as to why they seemed so unacknowledged and unprepared when it comes to doing assignments and the work at hand. The activist in an interview then supported the companies’ views and actually shifted the blame to the education sector saying that teaching in the universities is not doing enough to introduce the students to the practical version of their various fields. At the same time, he also put more blame on the students (graduates) themselves, saying they also do not do enough to introduce themselves to the corporate world in terms of volunteer programmes or internships.

Well, I agree with the activist, but hey, there is always room for even more reasons as to why many companies prefer to employ only those with experience rather than ‘fresh from the oven graduates’ or  simply put the A’s of university/college exams. Where should I begin, well take a situation where by you have just graduated, excited as ever, now comes that even more stressful part of after school life, the job hunt or rather joining the immense and widely competitive ‘labour market’. So you have done your part, i.e. completed your degree/diploma, gotten good grades, an upper second or even first class (probably A’s and B’s being most of your grades), and eventually sent out various applications. You eventually get lucky and are called for an interview, so you do your homework, learn all there is to learn about the interview procedures and collect as many tips as possible. So its interview day, and well you give it your best and eventually get shortlisted, but now comes an even greater fear, will you be able do the job, i.e. the tasks assigned to you. And remember you got a very good grade back at college so the assumption of the employer is that you should be able to handle anything that comes your way, even under the most stressful of circumstances. Then you get picked for an orientation period of say three months, where you now need to prove your worth, this is now the point where the companies actually realize your true potential and whether you can really handle everything thrown at you. Does your university “A” remain an “A” even at your work proficiency? Well let’s say you work to impress and manage to get that B+ during the course of the orientation depending on what competition was available, in this case, well you should pop open a bottle of wine and celebrate. The reverse scenario now comes, which is arguably facing many graduates according to many companies; the situation where by your work proficiency is now a “C” or even a “D” performance, who’s to blame here?

It is still arguable and has been reviewed by many external agencies that Africa’s education system especially at the tertiary level leaves much to be desired. I once looked at an a reliable international Agencies ranking of World top 200 universities and was shocked at the time to find in Africa, only two universities made it to the list, namely Alexandra of Egypt and Cape town of South Africa. Their reason as to why it was so for African Universities, was that according to a key parameter that they used to rank the universities was that of “How the graduates help change the societies they get back to after graduating either academically, politically, socially, culturally and so forth”. And come to think of it, when we consider this parameter, even the best universities in Africa still need a lot more of restructuring to get the standards of Universities like Harvard, MIT, Oxford and Cambridge.

So with this effect, we may say that companies’ complaint of many graduates from our local colleges is very valid but all in all, our universities and colleges may require a lot of restructuring and review of education and research standards if such complaints from our academic institutions are to be brought to a minimum. On the other hand students and graduates need to be keener towards working their sweat off when opportunities come their way, i.e. to prove that their A in their certificate is in fact worthy of its praise.

So if you are a fresh graduate or about to graduate, well first of all don’t be choosy with opportunities, accept anything that comes your way because that very opportunity will take you to the greater heights which you so much want to reach. An old folk proverb says that a beggar is not a chooser, and well many may dispute this but eventually that’s the case if one wants to achieve their goals or dream.