The economy needs diploma holders with hands-on skills

I’m trying to maintain an upright posture after being bent by the utter brainwash of trivialisation of diploma courses.

Back in high school, I thought making it in life was getting straight As in the KCSE exams, going to a university and landing a job upon graduation.

I mean, not even the many motivational speakers who gave talks at our school gave room for consideration of diploma courses. No one talked about Form Four leavers pursuing diploma courses and making a success of it.

But I was shocked recently when government officials, including Education Cabinet Secretary George Magoha, came out to advocate for the scrapping of some degree courses— terming them as “useless and irrelevant”.

Demean degree courses

We have seen also seen graduates who have come out to affirm that, indeed, their degrees are just papers. I’m not trying to demean degree courses. Many are very rewarding.

My aim is to debunk the long-held notion that students who pursue diploma courses are failures and have no chance of making it in life. This myth is very vile.

Way before the university cut off was a B plain, so many potential bright minds became discouraged and thought they were failures. Those days, there were close to 1,000 glitzy As and the academic giants would pursue the so-called prestigious courses.

What our brainwashed society failed to see is that most of the “failures” got somewhere as it focused on the cream of the crop.

Of late, our informal economy has a higher demand for technical skills, which diploma holders have, rather than degree holder with their mastery of theories.

Diploma

That said, one point is very clear: degree or diploma, making it in life is highly dependent an individual’s mindset.

The anathema of diploma courses being for ‘not-so-bright students’ should be annihilated.

Long gone are the days when diploma students would be forlorn and ashamed of saying they are pursuing a diploma due to stigma.

Would you rather have a degree and end up jobless or a diploma that is highly marketable?

Logic over emotions is really key here. Think about it.

Are you aged 10-20 and would like to be Nation’s young reporter? Email your 400-600-word article to [email protected]