AFRICA, Uganda, Does a University Degree Still Hold the Key to Your Dream Job?

As the warm glow of university admissions gives way to the cold reality of today's job market, this year's entrants and their anxious parents may be tempted to wonder whether a university degree is still worth it?

With the plan to spend millions of shillings on higher education often taking on huge debts along the way; many come to face a job market that does not seem to need them.

Not only is the Ugandan economy producing few jobs, but also the ones that are being added are overwhelmingly on the lower end of skill and pay scale.

It is now uncertain that pursuing higher education will continue to guarantee a substantially more affluent and secure life. Higher degrees today do not guarantee a good job and higher earnings either.

There are good reasons to believe that a bachelor's degree alone, may not be enough to command rising premiums over a lesser education or to open doors to the kinds of jobs that graduates expect to do.

The job market has become increasingly polarised, with the fastest-growing occupations on either the low end or the high end, often for positions that require higher education than a bachelor's degree.

What the statistics show:

Government surveys from the National Bureau of Statistics indicate that the vast majority of job gains in the previous years have gone to workers with only a high school education or less, casting some doubt on one of the nation's most deeply- held convictions that a university degree is the ticket to the prosperous dream.

Close to a half of the jobs always advertised in the media do not require more than on the-job training. One would not need a university degree to have the job.

Many people in Uganda work in the agricultural sector or are casual labourers. The agriculturalists comprise about 70% of all Uganda.

Uganda Bureau of Statistics (UBOS) findings indicate that illiterates are more likely to be available for work than the literates.

The remaining majority are left to try their luck in the informal sector, venturing into the entertainment industry, retail trade in places like arcades, markets, riding boda bodas and driving taxis among others.