International Health Science University (IHSU) now in their 10th year of training medical professionals with a heritage in the private health sector has today launched a new type of school dubbed; The School of Business and Applied Technology (SOBAT).
The school is partnering with business and industry sectors to offer a range of degree and executive short courses in Bachelors of Business Administration, and Postgraduate Diploma in Health Technology Innovation – which will start in April and February respectively in order to offer more practical education. To support this launch, the university will be offering a 25% discount on tuition fees for all the applicants before mid-January (15th January) which subsequently results in admission and meet required standards.
“Our partnership with business and industry sector, and also our practical experiential approach, meant that our emphasis on skills and character development, and that you start applying these in real work situation from the start of the course. You don’t wait until your course in complete only to discover that you are still missing the skills you need to be effective in your work,” Prof. Jamie MacAlister; Director of SOBAT, said during the press media briefing.
Prof. Jamie MacAlister; Director of SOBAT at International Health Science University, Kampala, Uganda.
Notably, the university already has a Certificate program in Applied ICT and Leadership Training that is on going for six (6) months taught by Michael Niyitegeka and is supported by Microsoft.
During the press media brief at the university main campus; Dr. Ian Clarke; Chair of the Clarke Group and Promoter of SOBAT, said the reason of broadening the university from purely health sciences to business is that new graduates are mostly unsuitable for employment because they have been trained in theory which they can’t apply.
“I have heard complaints from businesses, which find it difficult to hire employees even though they have a qualification in their respective application. Therefore SOBAT is designed to be more practical based to work with businesses themselves, so that when a student graduates, s/he has a sound practical understanding of what they have been trained in,” Dr. Ian said.
According to Daily Monitor, 87% of graduates can’t find jobs. Commentators have suggested that there is a disconnect. There are jobs, but graduates don’t have the skills and experience for them.
Samuel Sejjaaka; Country Team Leader at Abacus Business School, writing in the Saturday Monitor stated that, “the paradox we face is that while there are many vacancies for which skills are lacking, we are not short of people who are qualified in quixotic subjects.”
The university at their 8th graduation ceremony that happened last week saw over 207 health graduates. And according to the university, 93% of them have been employed.
On Wednesday, KCCA Employment Services Bureau launched the Prokaziea app, which is aimed at connecting youth to the employers in East African region. The application derived from Pro (Professional), Kazi (Work), ea (East Africa) targets students and youth in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda to ensure they are connected in the job market.
