Author: Emmanuel J. Munishi, PhD (College of Business Education, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania)
Abstract: Despite the critical role played by soft skills in ensuring employability and career development among graduates, evidence suggests a huge lack of these skills among graduates in Tanzania. Against this backdrop, this paper explored factors contributing to lack of soft skills among higher learning graduates in the country and recommended effective strategies of ensuring acquisition of soft skills by the graduates. The paper critically reviewed documents related to factors contributing to lack of soft skills among the graduates in Tanzania. The study revealed that lack of soft skills among graduates fundamentally emanates from poor curriculum which does not consider soft skills right from primary to higher learning level, ineffective educational policies and reforms that do not give emphasise on soft skills, incompetent trainers, inadequate teaching and learning facilities as well as lack of career guidance programs in academic institutions. These factors should be holistically addressed in a bid to equip graduates with soft skills necessary for employability. To ensure effective acquisition of soft skills by gradates, there should be regular curriculum and education policy review to include aspects of softs kills, allocating adequate budget for teaching and learning infrastructure, empowering higher learning trainers on soft kills and ensuring relevant teaching methodologies to enable educators equip students with soft skills.