OFFICE OF CAREER SERVICES AT MERU UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Meru University of Science & Technology established Office of Career Services in January 2019 in line with the Ministry of Education call for establishment of Career Offices in all educational, tertiary and institutions of higher learning.

The office which is currently housed in the Directorate of Quality Assurance and Career Services is operational.  It is headed by a Director appointed by the Vice Chancellor   and reports to the Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic and Student Affairs). The Director oversees all the operations of this office and is supported by an Office Administrator who undertakes the day to day administrative duties.  The goals of the Career Office have been entrenched in the Directorate’s objectives and workplan.  The Directorate works in collaboration with various departments in the University to achieve her mandate.  These include all teaching departments, Deans of Students Office, Public Relations office, Admissions Office, among others.

Since February 2019 when the training of establishment of Career Services was undertaken, the Directorate has been actively involved in various activities.  As we appreciate that this is a new venture in the education sector, the initial activities were geared towards sensitization of various stakeholders on the functions of the office and collection of information and feedback from the labour market through tracer studies.

The recent move has been on Career Guidance of high school students through elaborating on subject clusters leading to various programme concentrations as well as careers;  training of University students on basic skills for the labour market including developing a curriculum vitae, drafting a job application letter, tips for preparing and taking an interview, basic office etiquette, work-life balance among others.

Despite the budgetary constraints, we envisage to encompass more activities which will take care of the needs of all our stakeholders who range from pre-university students, university students, alumni and labour market. This will call for more collaborative activities with like-minded partners, capacity building of career officers and putting in place structured mechanisms for implementation of activities. To address the challenge of inadequate funds, the activities will be financed through the budget allocated by the University, adopting collaborative approach, and other fund-raising initiatives.