The diploma/degree debate IMO is always started by ignorant types for 3 simple reasons;

1. A degree is not meant to make you employable. It is meant to open up your mind to different possibilities. It is just proof that you can learn and that is why the graduation speech includes giving graduates the power to read.

2. Diplomas are meant to be technical and include practical application of skills learnt. Diplomas have driven industrial growth in countries such as Germany. That is why wise employers insist on CPA, ACCA, Dip in Law etc. Those provide technical skills.

3. An effective education system includes a pyramid of skills with certificates and diplomas forming the base, fewer graduates at the middle of the pyramid and even fewer PHDs and capital owners at the top. That system ensures that skills can be applied. In the pyramid, graduates bridge the gap between actual 'can do' skills and research (PHDs). They also help in mobilising capital to meet skills. They help diploma holders by introducing their skills to the elites who would otherwise thump their noses at them.

Kenya had the skill pyramid right when it had many technical schools and a few universities. As the universities started taking over the technical institutes, the pyramid started bulging at the middle hence the perennial complaints. As recruiting goes, not all jobs require a degree and in cases where a degree is required, the selection process should be done well enough to identify a candidate's other attributes such as industry and ambition.

For all that think degrees are useless, let ye know that there is a place in life for abstract reasoning, espousing ideology and thinking for the sake of thinking and entertaining ideas that have not been proven to work. The world is richer when idle curiosity is turned into practical skills. Do you think that Michael Joseph would have turned Safaricom into the company it is today without a good combination of degree and diploma holders? Do you think NIC Bank would be what it is today of the CEO ignored the need for employing quality graduates? Ditto Chase Bank and I &M?

Sitaki, see link http://www.careers.manch...nts/employable/skills/.

Graduates get employed for skills like numeracy, critical thinking, adaptability, spatial and abstract reasoning etc, logic, . Not just the fact that you have a degree.

Have you ever run a business ?
Have you ever had to hire someone to perform a task ?
Have you led a department in your organisation ?

If you have, then you know that beyond a specific point, the level of education doesn't matter. Unfortunately our Kenyan graduates think they are entitled to a job of their choice.
Those who are adaptable even take on jobs outside their discipline and bring in their thinking and problem solving skills and they do just fine.
Private companies especially efficient profit making ones and startups, pay people who can deliver results. If you can't it doesn't matter if you have a phd, they cant use it.

In the civil service and other parastatals, it is not the case. Look at the board of directors in any parastatal and you will see they are political appointments, compare that with the board of an NSE listed company.

ditto!

sounds more like a fallacy of composition.

...why is it shocking??the man haz so much experience that no degree,masters or doctrate can offer...@mozenrat i feel u,u arent walking alone...i find diplomas highly detailed and specialised when compared to degrees e.g a Bcomm holder can work in an invesment bank coz he/she has a wider knowledge of how securities work etc on the other hand a diploma holder in investment operations will do a better job coz the area of specialization is narrowed down to securities only...